Blue Fire
by The Ocean Is My Inkwell
Summary: Book 1 of Magician of Fire Saga. Is the daughter of Hecate truly a traitor to Olympus? An end to all cliches about half-bloods. Rated T for action and mild romance. FINISHED!
1. Chapter 1: Nameless Girl

**Disclaimer: Only an idiot wouldn't know I don't own PJO.**

Chapter 1: Nameless Girl

If you knew me, you probably wouldn't even know my real name. I could be anyone I wanted—Melissa, Rachel, Allegra, Karen, even Lidi. Sometimes I was Tawnee, sometimes Arwen, and sometimes even Ranyaba. My philosophy was, my name is none of your business, so who cares what name I give?

But no matter what alias I took, and whatever alley you found me sprawled in, you couldn't miss me. I was short and willowy, and my long tangle of what was presumably hair was a shock of flame red. I had no freckles (unlike most of you would assume), and my nose was aquiline; my wavy locks framed a long face set with pale, piercing ice blue irises.

You're probably wondering how I know exactly how I look—the truth is, I don't look at my reflection as often as I can, because I think I look anorexic enough to be ugly, but sometimes I can't help catching sight of my image on the shiny hood of a car or the glass wall of a government building. Simple.

Just in case you forgot even what I _look_ like, it was certain that you wouldn't forget what I do best—you'd go on staring at those swaying hips and flying feet of mine, wondering where on Olympus I get such strength and energy to fly around the stage. You'd watch in fascination how high my skirts fly, and marvel at the grace with which I lift my palms up above my head in a huge heart.

But still, you would not truly know _me_.

I am letting you know that my real name is Wynter for the sake of pure convenience in this account of my rather miserable adventures. I do not have a last name and have never cared for one. I was born some rough fourteen years ago probably in the bowels of Los Angeles; I remember vaguely when I was a tot having had a dad of some sort, but such memories pain me so much that through the years I have slowly allowed the image of his face to fade completely from my mind. The last thing I remember about my past was that I was kidnapped.

_I stared up at the stranger's face. He looked distantly familiar, with slick dark hair and sharp blue-green eyes. No…one eye was blue, the other green. Creepy._

_The strange man grinned at me through the window of the car. For a moment I felt perfectly safe behind that glass window, enveloped in a bubble capsule. I trusted that my dad would come back quickly and this bad man would go away._

_And then that wall of glass shattered._

_I shrieked. The man reached in quickly and scooped me up as easily as a sheet of paper; he slapped a heavy hand over my mouth to deaden my cries and whisked me away beneath the lapel of his leather jacket. I struggled and kicked, but he was too strong for me._

_Suddenly a thick blue cloud swirled and descended upon me, cradling my head and carrying me swiftly away. The man screamed and tore at my clothes, but it was too late—I had drifted beyond his reach. And I floated away on the whispering wind, ascending high up in the deep blue sky._

I had landed in a foreign place all the way across the country; miraculously, I survived on my own. Gradually, as I grew older, I learned that I lived in New York City.

I can just predict your next question: how did I survive? Well, I realized that I had a certain knack for dancing and performing magic tricks. I learned vicariously how to amaze people with snapping cards out of thin air and sawing kids into half and then putting them together again; but I despised these tricks—they were too cheap and too easy. I decided to put my mind and soul into real magic.

And, surprisingly, it really worked.

With my savings from those public shows displaying the "cheap" tricks, I set up a rickety stall right on the street with secondhand dark blue curtains and a decent stool and matching table. Here I laid out an empty glass globe I had picked up in a dumpster and waited for my customers.

You're probably wondering what I mean by "it really worked." You see, I was well aware of the fact that others of the same profession were fakes. They cheated their clients by giving away obviously vague prophecies after pretending to read your palm. But I didn't need all those fancy tricks; when I picked up my glass ball, I truly saw images of the future.

When business was slow, I closed shop for a day or two and got out into the street in my regular dancing outfit—a skimpy, outgrown violet t-shirt and a denim crinkle skirt from the thrift shop—and performed all sorts of amazing things. I did double flips and backward flips and three-point turns in midair; I did camel spins and somersaults and handstands and even splits. People never failed to wonder at my abilities and were always kind enough to hand me a dollar or two. This usually bought me two cans of soup which I each split in half for every meal.

My life was hard, but I was content. At least I hadn't landed in an orphanage. My only sorrow was that I wished I could have known my father, and sometimes silly notions slipped into my head of jumping into a taxi and hitchhiking all the way back to California. But it was no use thinking these thoughts; it seemed I was destined to live alone.

It also seemed I was destined to get into trouble.

**This is somewhat an introductory drabble; I hope you'll keep reading—it gets better, I promise.**

**Oh, and please don't forget to review!**


	2. Chapter 2: Seeing Stars

Chapter 2: Seeing Stars

It was Friday, June 8, and I decided to open shop again. I spent three hours in the stuffy area behind my curtain, twiddling my thumbs, before at last my first customer arrived.

It was a tall young man, well-built, with curly golden hair and amber eyes; he was dressed casually. The most I could observe from his face when he sat down in front of me was that he led a generally satisfactory life.

"What can I do for you?" I muttered in my fake gypsy's accent.

He was amazingly direct to the point. "I want to know my immediate future."

I lifted my gaze and studied him more closely. "Would you prefer palm-reading, a crystal globe, or mind-reading?"

"Any, as long I get a true answer," he said hastily. "Do all, if you like. I'll pay extra."

I started at this generous offer. I was so surprised that I accidentally dropped my accent. "All right then, I'll do all three."

He cocked a brow in my direction at the sound of my American accent. Then he laid out his right hand.

I glanced at it only once and reported without hesitation, "This is a long-term prophecy: you shall die old."

"That's good to hear," he murmured, then continued, "but what about my 'immediate future'?"

"I prefer to save that for last," I asserted. "I can read your mind first, if you like."

He gazed skeptically into my ice blue eyes. "How do I know you're not just going to trick me?"

I gave him a small, enigmatic smile. "I never trick my clients." Then our eyes locked, and my mind entered the very depths of his soul.

It was an interminably long time before at last I released him from my hypnotizing hold. He slumped back in his chair and looked expectantly at me. "Well?"

"You are thinking of your mother," I began. "You miss her very much and wish she did not die of cancer."

"That's correct," he said slowly. "But still, that's kinda easy to guess for a bold guesser. What else?"

"Right now you are also remembering your father, who is somehow not here on earth but at the same time not dead."

The boy seemed slightly unsettled. "That's pretty vague, but close."

My smile returned and broadened. "And lastly, you are wondering if, after your appointment with me, you can catch a taxi that will drive to Long Island in time for an important activity. You are returning to a place called Camp Half-Blood."

He flew to his feet. "What!"

I nodded. "That is what my powers tell me. Is it true? It must be."

"It's just quite too true," he said. "What are you? A witch?"

I laughed a bit. "No, I do not practice sorcery. But I am a true magician."

He remained standing, with his fist on my table, staring down at me. "Sir?" I ventured. "Would you like me to complete the appointment?"

He nodded and slowly sank back into his chair.

I reached for my treasured crystal ball and quickly lifted away the black dustcloth. I set it carefully in the center of the table and gazed deeply into it; at last the familiar thick blue cloud swirled inside the glass and began to form shadowy figures; with a start I recognized my own client. He was sitting on a bench beneath an oak tree, and beside him was a red-haired young woman who smiled up into his eyes. Both of them seemed to be conversing earnestly and fondly with each other.

I looked up again.

"What is it?" he asked.

"This is the prophecy of your immediate future," I said. "In a few days you shall find the love of your life."

He reddened deeply to the tips of his hairs. "Th-thanks," he stammered, emptying his pockets and tossing me twenty dollars. Then he ducked out of the stall in a flash.

Meanwhile, I ogled at the genuine twenty-dollar bill in my hand.

I~I~I~I~I

Business was slow all that afternoon; at last I drew the curtains over my stall, flipped the sign to CLOSED, and trotted off toward the empty lot with my skirt swishing at my knees. First I warmed up with some stretches and jumps; then I began my regular performance close to the curb.

I was just getting into the swing of things when all of a sudden a shadow flitted across the pavement in the corner of my eye. I froze.

It was the stranger.

He moved at an inhuman speed. He was dressed in his usual attire of a black leather jacket and gloves, and his mismatched eyes glinted evilly as he sighted me and moved closer.

In a moment he was upon me. He dragged me into an alley and gripped me tightly, nearly choking me. I screamed; he pressed his gauntleted hand close over my mouth. I kicked and struggled and tried to knock him in the back of his knees, but he was too quick. I scratched at his hands, and he pinioned my arms behind me; then he yanked me further away into the darkness. I was helpless.

_Crack!_

I wasn't sure if it was his head or mine that had been hit. At any rate, I flew into the air and struck the back of my head squarely against the brick wall opposite me. I scrambled to my feet in time to see a young man with a cudgel beating the stranger against the other wall. Suddenly the man screamed and slowly disintegrated into dust; his remains were wafted away on the wind.

The boy turned and dropped his stick. He hurried to my side and pressed a hand to my hot forehead. "Are you all right?"

I breathed deeply and tried to answer, but all I could see were stars and spinning skies. I gave a small nod.

"Say, you're the girl who read my future!" he exclaimed.

I struggled to look up at him. It took me a while at first to absorb what he was saying, but then slowly I realized that he was the same client who had come to my stall earlier that morning. I sat up, rubbing my head. "So I am."

He lent me a hand and helped me stand up. "It's a good thing I _didn't_ find a cab yet," he said, grinning wryly, "or else I wouldn't have seen you…or that man." He looked at me strangely as he said the word _man_.

I was too dizzy to reply. After a minute of silence, I said, "He wasn't a man. He was a monster."

The boy glanced uncertainly at me. "Uh…what's your name?"

"Allie," I lied. I leaned heavily against the wall again. "Thanks for the help. I got to go now."

"Wait!" The boy hurried after my limping figure and caught me by the arm. "Wait, don't go yet. Are you certain you saw a monster?"

I rolled my eyes. "I don't think you were listening, then. That…that _thing_ has been following me ever since I came here. I don't know what he wants, but he sure isn't a nice guy."

"This is it," muttered the boy. "I'm taking you to Camp Half-Blood."

**Review, review! Please!**


	3. Chapter 3: Hanging in the Air

Chapter 3: Hanging in the Air

A soft breeze wafted down from an electrical ceiling fan overhead. The whitewashed porch creaked beneath my feet as I stumped up the steps, leaning heavily against the boy's arm. We were up already on the brow of a hill, past the tall pine tree at the borders, and we were facing a large white house that looked somewhat like a hospital.

"Where are we?" I murmured.

"This is Camp Half-Blood," he explained. "I'm taking you to the Big House to see the director."

He gently guided me to the back of the patio, where a table was set with a broken umbrella perched in the center to keep away (sort of) the mosquitoes and the heat. A pudgy, livid man was playing some sort of card game with an older, bearded partner seated in a shiny leather wheelchair. I shuddered—after the encounter with the monster, I was somewhat wary of leather.

The old man suddenly turned and nodded his greetings. "You have brought another one, Zac?" he asked, addressing the boy who was holding me.

"Yeah. She's kinda hurt, Chiron. I think she's going to…"

Just as he pronounced the word, I fainted.

I~I~I~I~I

I snapped back to consciousness a few minutes later, propped up in a big armchair in front of a fireplace (it was not lighted, I recall—it was June). I glanced around: I was inside the Big House, and I was alone.

Suddenly the door at the other end of the room opened, and the boy called Zac strolled in, comically balancing a tray of drinks and food on his head while grappling with his shoelace with one hand and attempting to beat back the springy door with the other. Despite my dizziness, I managed a smile.

Zac spun over to where I sat. He handed me a glass of some golden liquid that looked like fruit juice—being a destitute orphan in the streets, I didn't know at that time that it looked like apple juice.

To my surprise, it was orange coke.

Zac grinned. "It's supposed to taste like your favorite drink," he explained. "And better yet, it makes you well."

"Thanks," I said. "But why am I here? What is this Camp Half-Blood?"

"It's…for kids with a sort of special condition."

"Like what?"

Sighing, Zac began to explain. "You know about the Greek myths?"

I knit my brows together. "Not really…"

He handed me a small blue brochure with symbols and words printed on it. "Here, maybe it's better if you read for yourself. It's hard to explain."

I glanced at the paper in apprehension. "I—I can't read."

"Oh! Then of course you wouldn't know about having dyslexia and ADHD and all that. Well then, this is how it is…"

And as he talked, I actually began to believe him. "I think I remember a guy telling me about all that stuff before," I said. "He was one of my…clients. A tall, blonde man with hazel eyes, maybe thirty-ish."

"That would be my dad Apollo," remarked Zac.

"So…does that mean you have some sort of special marking or ability?"

Zac nodded. "All my sibs who are kids of Apollo are talented in the arts. Some sing and some dance, and I happen to play the guitar."

"They dance?" I said excitedly. "Maybe Apollo's my dad!"

Zac looked skeptical. "Nah, probably not. My dad doesn't practice magic, for one thing, and that's for sure."

"Oh." My face fell.

"Cheer up, Allie. It's—"

"My name's not Allie," I interrupted. "Sorry I lied. I'm Wynter."

"That's a better name," he said. "But why did you have to lie?"

I shrugged. "Can't trust anyone in the streets of NYC nowadays."

Zac stood, offering me a hand. "Well then, come on. I'll show you where you can sleep tonight."

I~I~I~I~I

The Hermes cabin was awful.

All night long I couldn't sleep. I had been given a ratty sleeping bag and a half-shredded pillow shoved into a corner, and to make matters worse, a boy in a nearby bunk had his smelly socks hanging straight in my face. Plus, the cabin leader, Sean, snored.

At last, when morning broke, I stumbled out of the cabin, bleary-eyed. Zac was kind enough to escort me to the pavilion for breakfast; then he took me on a personal one-on-one tour of Camp Half-Blood. He showed me the arena where the swordfighters paired off to practice; he also pointed out the archery ranges and the big forest where they played Capture the Flag every Friday. He also revealed to me that satyrs and tree nymphs roamed about the countryside—not to mention Chiron, who was really an aged and famous centaur, I learned.

"How about the red-faced man?"

Zac made a face. "Oh, Mr. D.? He's Dionysus, god of wine."

That certainly didn't sound very pleasant. I turned my attention back to the cabins and pointed randomly to one that was brightly painted and decorated on the outside. "Whose cabin is that?"

"Aphrodite's," he replied. "Would you like to drop by?"

And so I spent the next two hours in the hands of the merciless cosmetic experts who criticized my clothes, remarked on the shape of my jaw, and exclaimed over my atrociously wild hair.

A tall, slim girl with short layered brown hair and pacific blue eyes, dressed in a sparkly indigo halter top sauntered over. "Hi."

I squirmed uncomfortably.

"I'm Demi," she went on. "You must be the newbie. Undetermined, huh? Oh, you'll love it here. Those Hermes and Apollo guys are just _so_ cute. And say, maybe some mascara would emphasize the bold hue of your eyelashes…and we could cut your hair a few inches…"

"Don't."

"What?" The girl was taken aback.

"I don't _want_ to be like you or any of your empty-headed sisters," I flung at her. "I want to be natural. I want to look like…myself."

Demi shrugged nonchalantly. "Whatever," she murmured. "I'm warning you, though, that the guys won't like you…"

I cut her off. "I'm not _interested_ in guys. I just want to live a normal, happy life, something that maybe I've never even experienced before."

Demi wrinkled her nose. "Remember, you're only a newbie," she hurled back, and spun on her heel and stalked away.

I sighed. Was I ever going to like life at Camp Half-Blood?


	4. Chapter 4: Officially Named a Jerk

Chapter 4: I Am Officially Named a Jerk

I was grateful that Zac didn't bring up anything about my encounters with various other half-bloods. Instead he steered me clear of other troublesome kids, muttering something about "dangerous Ares bullies," and directed me back to the arena.

"What would you like to try, swordcraft or archery?" he asked.

I glanced at the bow slung readily over his shoulder. "Um…maybe I'll pick the sword," I said. "I want to try something easy."

Zac laughed. "Swordcraft is _much_ tougher than archery," he called back as he walked to the other end of the arena. "You get really close to your opponent. You have to be super quick. And there's usually hardly any time to dodge blows if you're slow. Sometimes you even have to dance around a bit."

I folded my arms. "I'm still game."

"Great!" Zac tossed me a practice sword—but a real sword, nonetheless. I examined it: it was crafted of a long, flat, narrow blade glinting silver, with a blue-grey hilt of a similar metal. Etched in the pommel of the hilt was an intriguing design—some sort of ball of fire, intricately carved. I hefted the sword, and to my surprise and immense delight, it balanced perfectly.

"Whose is this?" I asked.

Zac shrugged. "Oh, just a random practice sword I found in the armory. It's nobody's, really—you can have it, if you like. It probably hasn't been sharpened yet in years, though."

I nodded. "Shall I give it a shot, then?"

"Uh…maybe not with me," he said hastily. "I have in mind a very good trainer who I think would best fit you."

"Who?"

"Per—oh, he's here now."

I turned at the ring of footsteps on the steps in the arena. It was a tall, lean boy, maybe only a few years older than Zac, with jet black hair and deep blue-green eyes like the sea. He was dressed like the other campers, with a faded orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt and dark jeans. He grinned and waved when he saw me.

I got ahead of him just as he was opening his mouth. "_Don't_ call me a newbie," I declared. "I do have a name, you know."

"Oh, I know," said the boy. "I hated it too when I was called a newbie. You're Wynter, right?"

I was surprised. "Who told you?"

"Oh, Mr. D. tends to be indiscreet," said the boy, his grin turning mischievous. "I just…well…visited Chiron to clear up the matter about the name."

I nodded. "Don't ask for a last name. I don't have one…"

He shrugged. "Doesn't matter. I'm Percy Jackson."

"He means Perseus Jackson," Zac whispered loudly in my ear. "Son of Poseidon."

"Um…okay, what am I supposed to say?" I whispered back.

Zac smirked at me and announced to Percy, "Sorry about her manners. She's an orphan."

"Hey!" I protested.

"Well, pleased to meet you, Wynter," said Percy. "I hear I'm to be your trainer."

I nodded.

"Be really careful," Zac warned me as he moved out of the arena. "Percy's our top swordsman. You have to be ready for his moves. Anyway, bye! Gotta go practice my archery." Then he vanished.

"En garde!" bellowed Percy, shoving the point of his sword up between my shoulders.

I whirled. "Where'd you get that sword?"

He showed me the now retracted pen he had in his pocket. "It's called Anaklusmos, or Rip Tide. It was a gift from my dad."

"Wow," I said. "I wish my mom would give me a gift like that…"

He squinted at me. "I thought you're an orphan."

"I—I had a dad, I think," I said hastily.

He simply nodded. "Shall we get on now?"

I raised my sword. "Ready."

He noted the way I held my sword. "Are you left-handed?"

I flushed furiously at being caught once again with my secret. "N-no…I don't know. I can't read or write."

He shrugged. "Well, if you feel more comfortable that way, I certainly don't object. I just have to warn you, though, that most other swordsmen are right-handed when they fight, so you may have trouble at first blocking their moves with either your blade or your shield. You see, you don't have a lot of leverage or force when your left hand meets your opponent's right hand, because there's hardly enough distance between your swords."

I switched hands, but it just didn't seem right. I switched back to my left. "I can only do it with my left."

"All right," he said. "That just means you need more practice and more training. Now on with the lesson!"

I~I~I~I~I

At last I stumbled, exhausted, into the Hermes cabin.

Zac roused himself and greeted me. "Hey! I was waiting for you! How'd everything go?"

"Tiring, but good," I admitted. "You were right. Percy _is_ a great swordsman, and being left-handed certainly isn't very advantageous for me. But he said that I'm great at offensive and fancy footwork."

Zac grinned. "Of course. You're a dancer."

I smiled shyly back at him. "Say, when's dinner?"

"Oh…you just missed it," he said, then added hastily, "I brought some for you, though. Here." He handed me a paper plate heaped with pizza.

I cringed.

"What's the matter?"

"It's—it's got _pepperoni_," I whispered. "That's real meat."

"Um…yeah, but what's wrong with that?" he asked, confused.

I blushed and simply took the plate. "Sorry if I'm acting like a brat. It's just that I'm sort of a…vegetarian. I've never had meat in my whole life."

He nodded understandingly. "Well, eat up! You'll love it! And there's one last thing later that you'll just die for."

I~I~I~I~I

The "one last thing" was the campfire gathering.

A massive, magical bonfire had been constructed in the middle of the arena, dancing in the air in a magnificent blaze of all the rainbow's colors. A rather large group of kids was assembled all around the fire, singing snatches of songs while apparently waiting for someone. Even Chiron was there in full centaur form.

"The great one has arrived!" Zac announced grandly with a dorky grin to match. He had his red-and-black flame-decaled guitar slung jauntily over his shoulder, and he began to strum away at some major chords as if it were the easiest thing in the world. Some Apollo kids cheered and hooted, while Aphrodite girls in the back began one by one to faint away.

I clapped my hands and joined in as the kids sang a couple of popular songs I'd heard recently throughout NYC. Then, suddenly, Zac stopped.

"I have a special announcement to make," he said. "As some of you know, we have a new camper here. I would like to present to you now Wynter as our guest star tonight."

I gasped and stumbled to the front, my head spinning. "What am I supposed to do?" I hissed frantically at Zac.

He shoved a tambourine into my trembling hands and shoved me up in front of the people. "What you do best—dance!"

I had no time to think. In seconds I found myself beating the tambourine at a furious beat and clapping at the same time, gently swaying and finally losing myself completely in the rhythm. My skirts began to swirl, and as I danced, I noticed that even the bonfire grew low and turned deep violet. I danced for all I was worth, and I even began to do some somersaults and flips. Catching encouraging shouts from the row of Apollo kids, I ventured to do double flips and backward somersaults; I even juggled the tambourine and passed it between my feet and up my back as I did the breathtaking splits. In the left field of my vision, I glimpsed Chiron slightly smiling. Then I caught Zac's eye and saw him signaling: I had three minutes left. I had to do something different.

It was then that the most brilliant idea flashed in my mind. I knew magic and I knew dancing, and both were equally amazing, so why not combine both? I no time at all I had green and blue and purple fire dancing delicately between my fingertips; even my tambourine began to blaze. Some Hephaestus kids were leaning forward; they were deeply attracted to the flames.

Suddenly everyone gasped all around me, and the music screeched to a halt. Confused, I let the tambourine slip from my fingers and the fire die out as I followed the kids' gaze. It was something bright and glowing above my head, some sort of symbol—a shining crystal ball swirling in a cloud of blue mist and purple fire.

"You ugly hag! You jerk!" shrieked a high-pitched voice. With a start I recognized Demi's voice.

Chiron slowly trotted closer to where I stood. He bowed from waist down and said, his voice booming, "Hail, Wynter, daughter of the great goddess Hecate."

**Well! That was a long chappie! I finally introduced the original book characters—keep reading for Percy. His own subplot with Wynter's very interesting.**

**Thanks to Element Wolf, who correctly guessed Wynter's parent even before I revealed it! And thanks also to my generous reviewers:**

_FantasyFan-WriterGirl_

_Azncakegrl_

_Element Wolf_

_Ultimacy On High_

_olympianchef213_


	5. Chapter 5: My Life as a Recidivist

Chapter 5: My Life as a Recidivist

"Chiron, I just don't understand. What's wrong? Why do all the kids hate me now?"

Chiron held up a hand to block the flow of the torrent that tumbled from my mouth in mass confusion. "It is rather complicated, child," he said slowly. "Sit down. I will explain everything to you." He turned to Zac, who was standing worriedly in the doorway. "Zac, you may return to your cabin."

I collapsed wearily into the big plush armchair in front of the empty fireplace. "Well?"

"A few years ago—in fact, only over a year ago—the Olympian gods and goddesses had a rather large war with the Titans, which we now call the Titan War. They fought the great Titan lord Kronos, god of time. Fortunately, the war did not last long, and with the help of Perseus Jackson and his faithful friends, Kronos was destroyed. However, grudges and broken relationships still linger. Your mother Hecate, goddess of magic, is technically an Olympian, but she joined the Titan side in the last war for her own personal reasons. After the war was over, she, among several other traitorous minor gods and goddesses, was branded an enemy of the Olympians and was banned from Mount Olympus for eternity. And that is also why we no longer have a cabin for her children here at Camp Half-Blood."

I sighed and buried my face in my hands. "I still don't understand, why can't they just all be friends again? Why couldn't my mom fight with the Olympians? Why on all Olympus did Zeus have to do that to her? What's wrong with everybody?"

Chiron looked somewhat uneasy at my outburst (no doubt fueled by my untreated ADHD). "It's not that simple," he replied. "The gods have their own reasons, their own affairs. It is not our place—including mine—to instruct them on whom to forgive and what to do."

I looked up again, my ice blue eyes flashing chilly. "Well, I'm a daughter of a goddess," I argued. "The gods are still my family. I have a right to have a say in what they do."

Chiron sighed and began again, ever so patiently, to explain. "Wynter, you have no power over them. You are not even a child of one of the Big Three. You are the daughter of a minor goddess, and one whom Lord Zeus has condemned. It is only your parentage he will see."

"The gods are all messed up!" I shouted, and spun on my heel and disappeared.

I~I~I~I~I

I ran as hard as I could toward the only safe place I knew, the arena. Once there, I rushed to the center and flung myself face down in the sand, sobbing. I had never meant my life to be like this. Why was I always rejected? Why was I always alone? Why couldn't I just live a happy, normal life?

Suddenly a hand touched my shoulder. I whirled, my eyes pulsing in fright. In the gloom of midnight I barely recognized the boy. "Percy?"

Percy eased himself down into the sand beside me. "Yeah, I'm here."

I sighed and hunched over again, as if I really could hide my face from him. "Why'd you come?"

"I heard everything," he said. "I wanted to…see if I could help."

I shrugged and mumbled, "It's okay. I don't need any help…I guess."

"Listen," said Percy, "it's not as bad as you think. When I came here, I wasn't normal either. Kids didn't really get close to me…probably because I was the kid of the prophecy."

"You can say that because you're the son of Poseidon," I said bitterly. "At least other kids respected you. Here, everyone hates me."

This time it was Percy's turn to sigh. "I know."

There was a long moment of silence. Then, suddenly, Percy laid his arm around my shoulders and patted my back. "Don't cry," he whispered.

His words and his presence were so soothing that I lapsed into a near-happy sort of silence; then I looked up again. "Oh Hades, it's past midnight! I can't get to any cabin safely without the harpies eating me. And besides, the Hermes kids won't take me in. They hate me too."

Percy stood, helping me up. "Come on. I know a place where you can sleep."

I followed him into the inky darkness as he led me out of the arena and deep into the forest, beyond the creek where kids played Capture the Flag and past the rock that looked like a giant fist. At last he stopped in a small, empty clearing.

"What's this?" I asked.

He just shook his head and motioned me to help him. Quickly he gathered some fallen boughs and propped then up in the center of the clearing in neat rows to form a small rectangle. I immediately caught on and helped him construct the somewhat sketchy but nonetheless sturdy walls; then Percy climbed inside and laid a makeshift roof of interlaced branches and broad leaves.

"This is where my friend Nico used to live," he explained. "He dismantled his hut here and moved away, but he left me the branches and the instructions. And he still visits sometimes."

I didn't know what to say. "Thank you," I said softly, as if afraid that someone would hear.

He smiled. "You're welcome. If you ever need anything, I'm always here. Good night, then."

"Good night, Percy." I smiled at his small figure slowly receding into the misty gloom.

I~I~I~I~I

"Wynter."

I floundered up the surface of my ocean of sleep. "What?"

"_Wynter_."

Suddenly a dim glow filled the room, and a beaming ball of blue fire appeared at the doorway. The silhouette of a tall, slim woman appeared.

I sat up.

"I have come for you, Wynter. Listen to me." The woman had long dark auburn hair and brilliant violet irises; her voice echoed like silver bells.

I gasped. "Mother?"

Hecate moved her head in a small nod. "Yes, I am your mother, Wynter. I have come to tell you many important things."

I bowed my head in respect and waited.

"You must be very strong and very brave, Wynter," she began. "I know how others feel about you and how you feel. But remember the powers I have given you. I think it will be to your great joy to know that there a few who still admire you because of your abilities and who still share sympathy for you."

"Like who?"

"Percy Jackson, for example," said Hecate. "I sent him to you tonight."

I smiled. "Thank you."

"But he will not stay long," continued my mother. "He has his friend Annabeth Chase to think about. More importantly, I have given you a faithful companion, the son of Apollo."

"Zac?" I asked, thinking of him fondly.

She nodded. "But I will tell you even greater news, Wynter, news that has not yet even reached Olympus. There is a great plague spreading quickly, and it strikes fiercely and mercilessly. When the sun rises this morning, it will strike Camp Half-Blood, and man will not be spared."

My eyes widened. "What is this plague?"

"I do not know exactly what it is," said Hecate. "But is strong, and it is evil. I have no doubt that another dark force is rising in the west, and it will decimate all powerful half-bloods that lie in its way."

In my concern and my eagerness to know more and help more, I completely forgot about my own grief. "Can we stop it? What should we do?"

"Tomorrow, some old friends will come to camp," my mother explained. "By that time, they will know more and will be able to do more. And one other thing."

"What is that?"

"You have a great and powerful secret, Wynter, that even you do not yet know. Be patient, and you will soon discover it. But always bear in mind all that I have told you, Wynter. Remember it well."

Before I could bid farewell, she disappeared in a flash of violet light.

**And so the plot thickens! *rubs hands gleefully***

**Oh, and did you like the part about Percy? It's not what most of you might think—he's just Wynter's friend.**

**I'll keep you posted! Please keep reviewing!**


	6. Chapter 6: Where Thunder Meets Fire

Chapter 6: Where Thunder Meets Fire

I caught Zac early the next morning lingering by the infirmary door. "What are you doing here?" I demanded.

He turned in surprise. "I was just going to ask where _you_ have been."

Before I could control my tongue, I slipped. "In the woods, in a hut."

"A hut? Since when was there a hut in the _woods_?"

"Oh—Percy made it for me," I stammered.

Zac looked at me strangely; then he caught the sincerity in my eyes and seemed to relax again. "Have you had breakfast yet?"

I shook my head. "I'm not so hungry," I said. "But listen, I have something important to tell you. There's something going on here at camp…"

"The sickness?" he filled in for me.

I nodded. "How did you know? Has it already happened? What's wrong with the campers?"

"Whoa, one question at a time," he said. "It happened at dawn. I was the first one to alert Chiron that some of my sibs were screaming in their sleep. When he came back with me, we found that everyone in my cabin had frozen still."

I shuddered. "You mean, they wouldn't wake up?"

"Yeah."

"What about the other cabins?"

"Only the early birds escaped it. Those that slept in too late caught it."

I winced. "Seems like it's actually good I wasn't given a cabin." I sighed and indicated the closed door of the infirmary. "What are the healers trying to do?"

"Honestly," said Zac, "they're clueless."

Suddenly a conch blew in the distance. "That's Chiron," reported Zac. "Come on, that's his signal. Time to visit the Big House."

I~I~I~I~I

The small parlor inside the Big House was nearly filled with unfamiliar people by the time we got there. To my surprise, they were all teenage girls—and they certainly didn't seem like campers.

Chiron was there in centaur form, stamping his hoof for attention. "We have visitors," he announced to Zac and me and two other half-bloods who had come ahead of us. With a start I recognized Percy; the other was a girl his age, with blonde hair and stormy grey eyes. No doubt she was Annabeth Chase, the daughter of Athena.

Chiron cleared his throat. "We have been honored with a visit by our Lady Artemis and her following of maiden Hunters," he went on. "They have come to offer a possible solution to our present…problem."

I pricked up my ears. Were these the "old friends" my mom had told me about the previous night?

Just then a ten-year-old red-headed girl with a gold circlet across her brow and several metal bands on her bare arms stepped up (she was wearing a bright white sleeveless tunic). She nodded her thanks to Chiron; I noted that their greeting seemed rather formal, if not cold.

"That's Artemis," Zac whispered to me.

I turned in surprise. "She looks young."

"She's in human form," he replied, then snapped back to attention as a blue-eyed girl with spiked black hair glared at him.

"We have heard that the campers have been afflicted with a special condition," said Artemis. "We have come to help."

I couldn't help it. I blurted it all out. "Can you heal them? Can you stop the dark force?"

Zac stepped hard on my toe before I could continue. I winced and glowered at him.

"We will do our best," replied Artemis. To my surprise, she was not angry at me for being indiscreet.

Percy spoke. "Do you know the exact cause of this?"

A half-smile curved the goddess's lips upward. "It is you again, Perseus Jackson," she greeted him. "No, not exactly. But I am quite certain that it is not Kronos. I am assured that he has been destroyed forever."

Chiron seemed to agree. "But you have no sense of what kind of presence it may be?"

Her answer chilled me to the bones. "It is a powerful being, half-Titan and half-god."

A murmur rippled through the assembly of Hunters.

"What do we need to do?" I broke in. (I could be so impious sometimes!)

"A select few must journey to the west to find and destroy this force," said Artemis. "That is what my godly senses tell me." And she stared straight at me.

"_Me_?" I squeaked.

The goddess nodded gravely. "Chiron and I have discussed the matter thoroughly," she said, "and we have received a prophecy telling us that now is the time to go."

I was speechless.

The girl called Annabeth spoke for the first time. "Lady Artemis," she said respectfully (I cringed at my own rudeness!), "what is the prophecy?"

"It is not safe to utter it aloud," said Artemis. "The walls have ears. I have written it down for you; you may read it."

Annabeth took the scroll of parchment and read the Greek letters (wow, I wish I could do that). Then she turned and handed it to me.

I shook my head. "Can't read. What does it say?"

She read it aloud, her voice low.

"_Five have been chosen by the triple crown_

_To find the lair where mist and shadows lie._

_Their signs shall be those seen by sight and sound;_

_And through their quest the darkest force shall die._

_Son of the sun god, daughter of the skies,_

_Son of the sea god, daughter of the wise,_

_Be guided by the daughter of blue fire._

_Beware his lure of treacherous desire_."

There was an awed hush across the entire room. Then Chiron stood, stamping his hoof for attention, and announced, "The quest members have now been selected. Zac, Thalia, Perseus, Annabeth, and Wynter, please come up."

The five of us glanced at each other and obeyed. Thalia, the "daughter of the skies," was the blue-eyed maiden Hunter. She seemed to be fifteen. She looked like a punk kid, with spiked hair and heavy black eyeliner and mascara; she wore a long black t-shirt and torn dark blue jeans. She carried a sword at her hip and a grey-black bracelet on her left wrist; a silver circlet crossed her brow.

"She's a daughter of Zeus," Zac whispered helpfully.

Chiron was speaking. "Wynter, daughter of Hecate, according to this great prophecy, you will lead this quest."

My jaw must have flapped open.

The punk girl Thalia suddenly protested. "A daughter of Hecate!" she said. "We can't have the kid of a traitor leading this quest! Why not me? I'm the daughter of Zeus!"

The adrenaline of anger slowly began pumping into my temples. I whirled and glared at her. "I am not a traitor," I flung back at her, my voice dangerously low.

She glowered right back at me. "You're a witch."

"Am not!" I shouted, and before I could control myself, a blinding ball of blue fire flashed from my hands. Immediately she struck back with a thousand bolts of glistening electricity. Overhead the sky rumbled, but I hardly noticed it; I was overcome by anger. I hurled flame after flame at her head until suddenly Chiron broke in.

"Children! Stop!"

We froze; then we lowered our weapons in shame.

"It is not honorable to fight each other like enemies," he went on. "You are both on the same quest. You must learn to accept each other's abilities and live in peace."

"I'm sorry," I mumbled.

Thalia lifted her dark blue eyes to meet my icy ones. "Uh…sorry," she stammered.

I was the first to smile. Tentatively I reached out my hand, and she took it; a cheer erupted all around.

But the Hunters were not the only audience there.

***cackles* Haha! Cliffie!**

**Please review, review, review! I'll keep updating as soon as I can!**


	7. Chapter 7: A Second Plague

**Wow! So many reviews! Thanks so much for your support—I never guessed that this particular story would clique so much!**

Chapter 7: A Second Plague

I wheeled at the tiniest sound at the doorway. "'Scuse me," I muttered to Zac from the side of my mouth. In a second I ducked outside and was gone.

I shot out a hand to muffle the ear-shattering shriek that arose from the corner of the porch. Angrily I jerked the intruder to her feet and glared straight down into her frantic blue eyes. "What were you doing here? Eavesdropping?"

Demi's eyes widened in recognition; then she relaxed when she saw it was only me. Her heavily glossed lips twisted in a smirk. "Nope. Just taking an evening walk outside."

I ground my teeth together at the mere sight of her face. "You were eavesdropping on a _secret_ conference with the gods."

"Oh, was I? Pardon me—"

"I'm sure the gods won't pardon _you_."

"I was only being curious."

"You were being stupid."

Suddenly Zac was there at my elbow. "What's wrong?"

"This—this _worm_ was eavesdropping on every word we said!" I exploded. "I'm _so_ sorry the plague spared her."

Zac struggled fiercely to keep the grin off his face. "Wynter…"

Demi took full advantage of my distraction and wriggled like an earthworm out of my grip. In a flash she was gone.

"What—" I stared openmouthed at the spot on the porch where she had just been a minute ago. I shook my head in wonder. "What are we going to do now? She's an Aphrodite kid. This will spread like wildfire."

Zac shrugged. "So what if it does? There's nobody left to listen."

"Ah." I understood that he was referring to the plague. "So," I continued. "Looks like we're on a quest, aren't we?"

Zac grinned. "And _you_ happen to be the leader."

I~I~I~I~I

Argus, the camp driver and security guard, was waiting for us the next morning at the foot of Half-Blood Hill by the time we arrived with all our packs and supplies. I had slipped off my sweaty orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt and jeans and was once more promenading down the borders in my old familiar purple blouse and denim skirt. As usual, I was the earliest riser and first to get there. Next came Thalia.

She had changed her appearance somewhat; she had flipped over the silver circlet that marked her a Hunter lieutenant so that it now looked like an ordinary headband. She wore a newer, less rugged pair of dark jeans and a somewhat less punk-style black knit tunic; but she still sported her silver-spiked black metal bracelet.

I pointed to the bracelet. "What's that?"

"It's Aegis, my shield," she explained proudly. She demonstrated by pressing a button on the side of the bracelet; immediately it expanded into a large shining silver disk of steel with an intricately engraved boss. Amazing designs traced all across the circle.

"That's so…nice," I said (lamely). I fingered the sword I'd kept from the practice stockroom. "I wish I had something as cool as that."

Just then Zac jogged up to us, shortly followed by Annabeth Chase. I glanced at my quest members. "Where's Percy?"

"_Late_, as usual," sighed Annabeth.

Then Percy appeared with his hands in his pockets and hardly anything on his back. "Why couldn't you wait up for me, Wise Girl?" he complained to Annabeth.

She punched him on the arm. "Seaweed Brain, you're getting slow."

Then we descended together to the van, where Argus had been waiting patiently for approximately the last hour and seventeen minutes. As we pulled out of the driveway, I glanced back through the window and caught sight of Chiron standing on the brow of the hill, raising his hand in silent farewell. I was the only one who waved back.

I~I~I~I~I

I bonked myself on the head.

Zac turned with worry in his eyes. He caught my fist before I could injure myself further (his father being the god of healing and arts and all). "Stop! What's wrong?"

"The prophecy said we're headed the west," I replied with a sigh of frustration. "And that means California…"

"L.A., to be exact," corrected Zac. "And?"

"My dad lives in L.A., and I don't even know his name or where he is!" I lamented.

"Wait…I thought you're an orphan."

I related quickly to him about how I had been kidnapped, then saved by an unknown force and carried to NYC.

"That's weird," he mumbled. He patted my back awkwardly. "Don't worry, we'll find him somehow. At least Thalia here has some useful Hunter tracking skills."

"And that's exactly why you shouldn't mess with me," Thalia reminded him, baring her teeth.

We all lapsed into silence again; then Zac moved a little closer to me and nudged me.

I looked up.

"Can I ask you something?" he whispered.

I shrugged, still preoccupied about finding my family.

"Can I call you…Winnie?"

I smiled shyly. "Sure," I whispered back.

I~I~I~I~I

About an hour later, Argus dropped us off at the JFK Airport. (Fortunately, the mist was working, so mortals couldn't see that he had one hundred eyes.) We took our small backpacks and waited at the tail end of a mile-long line to catch a flight to L.A.; from there, we would continue our journey.

I kept glancing back over my shoulder from time to time, which worried Zac. "Stop it, Winnie," he said. "You're making me nervous."

"I can't help it."

"Yes you can. You're going to make Thalia irritable if you keep doing that."

I shrugged in reply, but I still couldn't shake off the feeling that we were being followed. I threw one last look backward—and saw two equally unwelcome things. I froze.

**Yay! I'm the queen of torturous cliffies!**

**And thanks again to my reviewers:**

_FantasyFan-WriterGirl_

_RaechelleMarie_

_olympianchef213_

_Azncakegrl_

_Element Wolf_

_the Minotaur_

**And thanks to Cerebella and BookReader56 for adding me to their lists of Favorite Stories.**

**Also, I'd like to announce that InoIceQueen is using my characters Wynter and Zac in her own story "Princess of Peace," so I encourage you to check that out too—it's very original and inventive.**

**When you're done reading this, I beseech you, please don't forget to review, review, review!**


	8. Chapter 8: I Release Some Baggage

**The title's a pun, people, so laugh! (*glares daggers at those who don't*)**

Chapter 8: I Release Some Baggage

I was too shocked to vent my anger.

"Demi! Run!"

She didn't need a second urging. In a flash she took to her heels (they were hot pink four-inch pumps). Grimly I drew my sword.

Zac was yanking at my arm. "Winnie! Are you crazy? Run!"

I shoved him away and planted my body in front of his. "Go ahead!" I shouted back. "I'll take care of it!"

The "it" was a mammoth monster. It was huge and furry, with a broad golden chest and glittering black orbs as big as saucers. Talons sprung menacingly from scaly feet as large as Jeeps; its tawny webbed wings spanned twenty feet. Its back brushed against the high ceiling of the lobby as it bent down and examined me.

I was struck dumb.

The griffin's hot breath in my hair roused me to action. With a roar of anger, I raised my sword and charged straight at the "it"—as if I had any inkling of what I was supposed to do.

Like the imbecile I was, I tripped over one of its feet and sprawled face down on the floor, and my sword flew from my hand and skittered away. I lurched after it, but just as my fingers curled round the hilt, the monster grasped me tightly in its talons and swept me up, up, up through the air.

I grew dizzy and faint as I glanced down and saw the floor nearly thirteen feet below me. The griffin slowly began squeezing the life out of me, crushing my ribs and my lungs. I was too breathless to scream.

And then, at the brink of all action being too late, I remembered the sword. It was still dangling precariously from my left hand, which had nearly hardened in my fear. With all the strength left in my tiny, frail body, I gripped the hilt and jerked my left hand upward out of the griffin's paralyzing hold. The scales of its skin grated against my arm; the monster screeched and lunged at me, and I whipped my head back and dropped the sword.

Wheezing, I mustered all the breath cramped lungs could hold. "Zac!" I yelled. "My sword!"

I had calculated wrong. At the time, Percy had actually been nearest to me, and he had caught my sword just as it fell from my hand. He responded first to my cry and tossed the blade up straight at me.

I finally wrenched my left hand free and caught the spinning sword (which was amazing, since I'd never played ball or anything like that before). Then I worked desperately to hack my attacker's claws.

Suddenly arrows whistled past my head one after another: it was Zac shooting at the monster. Some of his bolts missed and others burrowed home, but they did not penetrate deeply in the thick fur of its chest. The griffin thrashed and waved me wildly about; my head spun, but I took advantage of the distraction to try to wriggle my other hand free.

Suddenly I heard a resounding crash, and the monster bellowed in pain and rage. Annabeth (thinking the most among us, as usual) had spotted a truckload of baggage to be checked in at the desk and, with Thalia's help, had rammed it against the griffin's side in a desperate bid to free me from its clutches.

She got her wish—and much more.

With a thud I crashed to the floor, completely winded. Panting and gasping heavily, I scrambled for my sword, staggered heroically toward the monster, and plunged my blade deep into its chest.

And then the weirdest thing of all happened.

Slowly my sword began to glow with a dim, eerie bluish light. The sharp edge blurred, and the steel melted into a mass of beaming indigo mist. The monster thinned and grew transparent, and in horrified fascination I watched as sparks flew from the point of my sword throughout the griffin's body, electrifying it. With a deafening groan, the monster sank to the floor and disintegrated into a heap of dust.

I~I~I~I~I

And what did the mortals see?

They thought we, the five heroic teenagers, had missed our flight to valiantly defend the people against a raging lion escaped from the Bronx Zoo. We were hailed as heroes and given each a free ticket for another flight to L.A. We were even escorted by the police to the plane.

Meanwhile, Demi lurked behind us.

I whirled. "And what did you mean by using a cell phone to get us into this huge mess?" I hissed.

Nonchalant as ever (and _so_ Aphrodite as ever!), Demi shrugged her graceful narrow shoulders. "I was only calling Chiron—"

"And you let that griffin detect us, you idiot!" I growled.

"What does that matter now, anyway?" she demanded, her large dark blue eyes casting me an injured look. "You killed it and got a free ticket."

"And you didn't even do anything to deserve one!" I retorted.

Zac jabbed me sharply in the side, just where I'd been bruised by the monster's talons. "What?"

He motioned silently with his head at a young stewardess who had been observing my little spat with Demi in keen curiosity. She was in her late thirties or early forties, with misty grey eyes and light gold hair; she was dressed in the same white-and-blue uniform as all the other stewardesses, and yet she looked…different. And distantly familiar all the same.

I glanced at Zac. "Who is she? Does she know who we are?"

He shrugged. "I have a very distinct feeling, Winnie, that that woman is _not_ from here."

**Oh wow, I can't believe how many cliffies I'm generating! Can anyone guess who the woman is? If so, please tell me!**

**And please continue to review, review, review!**

**(A/N: If you would like me to use any of your own characters in this story, now is the perfect time. Simply e-mail me and send me a profile of your character(s), and I will try to fit them in if I can. Thanks!)**


	9. Chapter 9: A Crash Course on Phonics

**I couldn't fool you long with that "cliffie" of mine, could I? Yes, Ultimacy On High, FantasyFan-WriterGirl, and Anonymous Friend guessed correctly—the stewardess **_**is**_** Athena.**

**Now on with the story!**

Chapter 9: A Crash Course in Phonics

Annabeth turned in her seat when she saw me and Zac whispering. She spotted the blonde stewardess lingering near our row. "Mom?"

Athena turned her stormy grey eyes on us with a bemused expression. "Hello, dear Annabeth." Then her countenance darkened when she saw Percy next to Annabeth, the back of his hand touching hers. She clucked her tongue in apparent dismay. "I see that you are still…companions with Perseus."

As usual, I broke in. (I had a knack for interrupting the gods, didn't I?) "Lady Athena, why have you come?"

"My father Zeus has directed me to give the first sign," she replied. She glanced at me from top to bottom with those keen, calculating marble eyes of hers. She took something from the pocket of her uniform jacket and handed it to me.

I examined the object; it was a small weapon of some sort, curved and sharp and glinting wickedly, reflecting the light on its steel blade. I'd heard of this kind of sword before…a _sickle_ or something like that…

"That's a miniature of Kronos' scythe," gasped Zac. "Winnie, be careful…"

"It is safe to handle," interposed Athena. "It has no magical powers; and yet it holds a great secret. In time, you will find it."

"What—"

In a flash she was gone.

"Wait!" I said. "Don't go yet!" I glanced all around down the aisle, but she had truly disappeared. I heaved a deep sigh and sank into my chair.

"There are some strange markings on it," I said at last. "I have a feeling they're not English."

"Are they Greek? I can try to read them for you," offered Annabeth. Grateful to have such a knowledgeable quest member, I gladly handed the blade to her; she took it and held it carefully to the light.

"It's kind of hard," she murmured. "My dyslexia… Oh! I think I got the first part, anyhow!"

I leaned forward. "What does it say?"

"Wait—the lines are linked to each other. I have to read the whole thing first."

I waited patiently.

At last she straightened and recited:

"_The east meets west_

_Where he doth rest._

_Apollo's power_

_Shall save the hour,_

_And through his rays_

_Unlock the days._

_Release the stone_

_From its cold home;_

_Descend into_

_The misty blue._

_Await at nine_

_Another sign._"

Confused and amazed at the same time, I blew the stray tendrils of hair from my face and stared gloomily out the window as our plane began to take off. "That sure doesn't make sense. Am I missing anything, Annabeth? The history of the gods, perhaps?"

"Well…'Where he doth rest' implies something about a grave," she began. "But I still don't see _whose_ grave it might be." She turned away, also discouraged.

"Say!" piped Percy, startling me. "Wise Girl, you missed 'The east meets west.' Doesn't the sun rise in the east and set in the west? When that happens, a day goes by, or you could say _time_ goes by. And doesn't that mean—"

"—Kronos' grave!" Annabeth finished, in a breathless whisper. "Of course, it all makes sense now! Kronos is—was—the lord of time, and this is a copy of his own blade. Seaweed Brain, you're a genius."

He flushed. "So I'm not as kelp-headed as your mother makes me out to be! Ha!"

Thalia groaned at the pair's sudden noisy outburst of emotion. "Guys, I'm getting seasick…"

"You mean airsick," I corrected. "What's the matter?"

"Heights…" she moaned faintly. "Can't stand them…"

"Hey, at least your dad won't knock us out of the sky, Thalia," suggested Zac brightly. "I mean, you being his daughter and all and being a member of our quest."

She turned and glared at him. "I said be quiet."

Zac and I shared a secret grin in the shadows and bit our lips to suppress our laughter. Then we—including Demi, sulking behind us—drifted off into silence.

I~I~I~I~I

"Zac?"

He moaned and turned his head slightly; his right eye cracked open a millimeter when he saw me. His voice was hoarse from the dryness of the airplane (yes, they didn't even feed us anything). "Yeah?"

"Sorry to bother you so late…I mean, so early in the morning," I whispered. "But I've just been dying to ask you something. I just keep forgetting to ask it at all."

He sat up, somewhat more alert. "Fire ahead."

"How do you…spell your name?"

I got his full attention; he seemed surprised. "Z-A-C," he rattled off.

"No, no, no. I mean, how do you write it?"

He fumbled in his pockets for something to write with. At last he came up with a dried-out ball pen and a scrap of a shopping list he'd gotten from his mom some months ago. He quickly scribbled on the back of the sheet: _ZAC_.

I took it with a smile. "Thanks."

He nodded and dozed off again.

Meanwhile, I bent over the three big letters scrawled on the piece of paper, trying desperately to decipher them. To me, they looked more like: _ACZ_. But then I remembered seeing Annabeth's initials on a log-in sheet for some activity at camp, and the big pointy letter had been first—so that must be the middle one in Zac's name, since it had the same sound. And so I slowly threaded my way through the maze of writing, and triumphantly I followed it to the end.

I grabbed Zac's pen in my left hand (remember, I was left-handed at sword fighting) and carefully copied the letters of his name onto the palm of my right hand. I scratched out some other letters I'd seen before in graffiti paintings; then I smiled and held up my hand proudly to the light.

Suddenly my chair shuddered, and the pen slipped from my fingers. I gasped. "What—"

The others jolted awake. The plane was tipping and swaying wildly from side to side, and other passengers were shouting and gasping all around us. It was all I could do to fasten my seat belt and keep my churning stomach from emptying all its contents on the floor (a gross thought, but a necessary one).

Thalia was pale as a ghost; even Demi (who shouldn't have been there in the first place) was shrieking hysterically like the mortals. "What's happening?" yelled Thalia over the discord.

"I don't know!" I yelled back.

Then panic filled my ice blue eyes as I realized the truth. "Oh Zeus, no. We're crashing!"

**Hahaha, another evil cliffie! (The title's also a pun, too!)**

**By the way, the new sign in Greek letters is made of iambic dimeter couplets (and the prophecy was iambic pentameter).**

**Thanks so much for the reviews, especially from:**

_RaechelleMarie_

_Cerebella_

_Anonymous Friend _(tip: leave your e-mail so I can answer your questions!)

_Ultimacy On High_

_Azncakegrl _(Thanks for the character profile!)

_FantasyFan-WriterGirl_

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_Element Wolf_

_the Minotaur_

**And please review, please, please, please! (I know I sound like a repetitive sandwich man, but this is the only way to squeeze reviews out of readers!) Thanks so much in advance! I'll keep updating as frequently as I can!**


	10. Chapter 10: Telephones and Teleport

**Hey peoples! The new character introduced here is the sole property of Azncakegrl, so graciously lent to me because of my plea for character profiles. So, read and enjoy!**

Chapter 10: Telephones, Telepathy, and Teleport

The vibrations of the swinging plane shivered up my jaw as I bent my head and squeezed my eyes shut and curled up into a ball. Vaguely I sensed Zac arched protectively over me as all around the windows shattered and baggage tumbled from the cabins in shambles. Shards of glass struck my face, and impulsively I threw off my seat belt and dove under the seat, the place I'd figured was the safest. Thalia, Percy, and the others followed suit.

"Where are the oxygen masks?" shouted Annabeth over the roar of mass confusion.

Surprisingly, though heights made her sick to the stomach, Thalia was still master of her wits and her powers once up in the sky. "Not time to think of that now," she told Annabeth. "The plane's malfunctioning. In less than a minute our altitude will drop. We have to get out as fast as we can."

I set my jaw. "Everyone, keep close together! Don't let go of each other!" As soon as the words left my mouth, I scrambled across the floor from beneath my haven and struck out at the windowpane as hard as I could. Sharp pain shot up my fist and my arm, but I shoved aside the thought of my personal comfort and punched again. It took two more punches until at last the glass cracked and disintegrated, and the jagged pieces collapsed on top of each other and were swept out the window.

"Come on! Hold on tight!" I shouted. I groped behind and found Percy's hand; without a word I shoved him forward and launched him from the window.

Zac gasped. "Winnie! What are you—"

Before he could complete his sentence, he went next.

Annabeth caught on. She needed no urging; she jumped onto the windowsill and tumbled outside.

Thalia was white. "Wynter…It's too far down…"

"Don't think of that! Just jump!"

She hesitated. The moment was critical: I rushed at her and struck her square in the chest. Screaming, she toppled and fell headfirst out the window.

I gritted my teeth. As an afterthought, I reached down and felt inside the pocket of my denim skirt: the scythe was still there. Securing everything one last time, I swallowed and shut my eyes and crawled onto the narrow sill. Then I leaped.

The air rushed upward against my face and sliced through my flaming hair as a knife parts a curtain. The wind swirled around my hips and my feet, catching under my skirt and billowing it outward and helping to slow my descent. Then a soft, moist, bluish fluff pillowed my head and slipped under me, cradling me and sweeping me swiftly across the sky. I glanced around: Thalia, Percy, Annabeth, and Zac were all perched on the same cloud, dazed and confused and amused all at the same time.

Zac was speechless. "How did you know…?"

I released a shaky, breathless laugh. "It was a risk, I know," I admitted, sitting up and dusting myself off. "But I trusted that my mother was watching over us. She saved me before from my kidnapper in a similar cloud, remember?"

He nodded.

Suddenly I gasped. "Where's Demi?"

Annabeth's face darkened. "Wynter, I've been wanting to tell you something. That Demi Cochemagne—the Aphrodite girl—she's evil. She's a spy."

My eyes widened. Then I simply nodded. "I'm not surprised."

"And I think she must have escaped from the plane somehow," continued Annabeth.

"But if she's a spy, whom does she serve?"

Percy's eyes emerald eyes glinted in anger. "The dark force."

I sighed and slowly shook my head. "We have to get her back somehow. Otherwise the…dark force will know of all our plans. This quest is supposed to be secret."

Thalia nodded. "I know. But she's probably too far away by now. You probably don't know yet—Aphrodite kids have a special ability of teleport, traveling long distances through thin air."

"Well," I said at last. "I suppose that means we can't do anything anymore. The cloud's starting to descend. I wonder where we are…"

Zac spoke. "I think we must be somewhere in Nevada." His gaze shifted to my right hand. "Winnie, you're hurt!"

"Oh…?" I glanced down. Indeed, my right fist was lacerated and caked with blood. Obviously breaking windows wasn't a very pleasant occupation.

Being the son of the god of healing, Zac was prepared. He rummaged in his first-aid kit and triumphantly produced a wad of gauze, with which he then proceeded to swab the blood from my hand. Then he slowly flattened out my palm (a rather nasty business, I can assure you) and began to swathe it in bandages. He stopped. "What's this?"

I had not yet washed off the words I'd written earlier on my palm. I blushed. "I…"

The words read: _I LUV ZAC_.

Silently he read the message and wrapped his arm around me.

I~I~I~I~I

As it turned out, we _did_ land in Nevada.

"We should be wary of hotels," Percy warned. "We don't want a repeat performance of the Lotus Casino incident."

I nodded. Annabeth had told me all about their first adventure together. "Anyhow, we need a way of contacting the nearest airport," I said. "I know we really shouldn't be using telephones, but if it's only a minute…"

"Still too dangerous."

I whirled at the new voice. Behind me stood a girl just my age, with long inky hair and stunning amethyst eyes. She was slim and not too tall, and she was dressed in a plain black t-shirt and dark jeans, just like Thalia; she wore some sort of silver metal charm round her neck and a matching set of silver bangles. Her ballet flats were also silver.

I eyed her warily. "Who are you?"

Her voice was soft as shadow. "Imani Knight."

I studied her, trying to peek at her inner thoughts through her violet irises. I knew for certain that she was no mortal.

She seemed to know what I was thinking. "I'm a half-blood, daughter of the goddess Nyx."

I tensed up inside. "Have you been following us?"

She shrugged. "I suppose you could say I have."

"I don't remember seeing you at camp," broke in Annabeth.

"I'm a sort of freelancer," said the girl. "I don't really like it at camp—the kids are too wary of me because my mom's Nyx."

I gave her a crooked smile. "We're two peas in a pod," I informed her. "My mom's Hecate."

She nodded quietly. Then she dug into her back pocket and handed me something. "Here, you can use this."

It was a silver-and-black cellphone, with glowing buttons and icons and a black leather case with a strap. "It's a gift from my mom," Imani explained. "You can use it safely up to an hour without being detected by monsters."

"Thanks," I murmured.

Suddenly the girl cleared her throat. "Do you need help on your quest…?"

I smiled. "You're on."

**Thanks again for the reviews!**

**And Imani will be a major influence in the story, so thanks to Azncakegrl so much for the new character!**

**And please review!!!**


	11. Chapter 11: We Get a Lift to Hades

**Thanks for all the encouragement and the reviews! I'm so glad you all enjoyed it—I can't believe how this story actually meets even my personal standards.**

**So, read and enjoy!**

Chapter 11: We Get a Lift to Hades

That night, we steered clear of Las Vegas and hiked out into the wilderness by the highway. There, Percy and Thalia set about setting up a campfire, while Zac and I propped up portable camping tents, and Imani offered to lend a hand at cooking (which was not the forte of any one of us, so it didn't matter to us who did it).

As I began rummaging in our backpacks for the nylon tents, I sensed Zac standing behind me, watching me. My cheeks grew hot, and I bent awkwardly over my task, mumbling something about the dark. Then I turned and set about my work briskly.

I winced as I jerked the rope around a pin and the hemp dug into my hand.

"Stop," said Zac softly. "I'll do the rest. You just sit back and relax your hand."

I gave him a small, weary smile. Suddenly he plopped down beside me in the grass. We were well away from the light of the fire, so the others couldn't see us sitting together in the shadows.

"I was...thinking," began Zac.

"I thought you don't think," I gently teased him.

He grinned, his white teeth flashing in the blackness; then he sobered again. "No, I mean, really. I was thinking—about what you wrote."

I looked down, unsure of what his next words would be. His tone was inscrutable—was it eagerness? or regret?

Zac sighed and went on. "I wasn't sure at first of what your feelings were for me," he said. "But that day we first met—the day you read my fortune for me—remember, I said that I was waiting for a cab to take me back to camp. But then a few hours later, I was still there—and I helped you fight the monster."

I nodded. When he paused, I glanced up and murmured, "Go on."

"Well…I'm not the irrational or emotional type, really I'm not. But when I saw you…I guess it's what they call 'love at first sight.' And so I stayed and watched out for you."

I flushed. "I'd never thought… But why should you be attracted to me? I'm a daughter of Hecate. Everyone at camp took me for a traitor."

"But that was your mother," he whispered, brushing my flaming hair. He lifted my chin with his hand so that our eyes met, my ice blue irises melting in the warmth of his golden ones. "You are a totally different person. You are not a traitor. You are the most beautiful person I have ever met, inside and out."

I smiled. "Thank you."

Suddenly he reached down and picked up my hand. The ink had already been washed off, and my palm was now swathed in bandages, but all the same he held it tenderly and caressed it slowly with his finger.

Then he shifted and pulled me closer to him and held me in his arms, and together we swayed in perfect harmony, smiling into the shadows.

I~I~I~I~I

I picked my way softly through the grass and lowered myself beside Imani, savoring the fresh rabbit's meat that she and Thalia had roasted over the fire. We sat in silence for some time, as if both unsure of how to break the ice. Under the cover of the quietness, I was able to observe her unnoticed. Her ebony hair spilled like ink across her shoulders and down her back, melting and fusing with the dark air; the shadows cast by the fire slanted and fell strikingly across her violet eyes. She looked so beautiful at night.

"Thanks for coming," I said at last.

Imani looked up. "Your friend Annabeth told me about the prophecy," she replied. "I know that I really shouldn't be here. The gods said only five could go."

I frowned. "Personally, I don't put much weight on the prophecy…"

"But I don't think it's right to disobey the gods," she rejoined.

I swallowed. Whatever I said or did, I was always disrespecting the gods! "But…"

"I could leave, if you like," said Imani quietly.

I squeezed her hand reassuringly. "You can stay, Imani. You are always welcome here. Besides, I think we really need you."

She nodded and smiled. She laughed slightly. "It's kind of funny, how suddenly I'm needed by someone."

Suddenly it occurred to me that she was alone. "Say, don't you have a dad?"

She shrugged. "Sort of. He never really liked me, at any rate. He thinks I'm still at camp, and I bet he's _so_ glad I'm out of his life for three months."

I felt bad for her. "Well," I whispered, "I'm sure it will all turn out fine. Stay with us, please."

We both lapsed into silence again with some vague mutual feeling of gratitude for one another. Then we finished our meal.

I~I~I~I~I

"We need to book another flight somehow to get to L.A.," Annabeth announced a few hours later, as we packed up our tents and swept away the ashes of the fire.

Thalia looked troubled. (Heights and monsters, probably). "Well, can't Percy just call up some pegasi or something? It certainly would be much safer."

"I already tried. There's something wrong. Blackjack won't respond," said Percy. I caught the light of his eyes: he was bothered.

"Is it the plague?" I asked.

"Probably," sighed Percy.

"There's absolutely no other way?" I pleaded. "No magical birds or something?"

They all looked at me and shook their heads.

"Yes, there _is_ something," said Imani suddenly. "The ravens."

It was our turn to stare.

"My mother is the goddess of the night," she explained. "That means I have the power to call up the giant ravens."

I was so surprised and grateful at the same time. "Imani, you're a genius!"

No sooner had the words left me than the air was filled with the whirring and beating of giant black wings and the rough caws of the ravens. One after another they descended, three of them in all. And when Imani said _giant_, she certainly wasn't mincing her words—these birds were huge.

We all climbed onto our ravens in pairs; I went in front of Zac. Then swiftly we rose and floated in the air for a moment; then we took off.

I leaned over to where Imani was sitting next to Thalia. "Thanks so much," I whispered in her ear. "See, I told you we would need you. I'm so glad you came along."

She bit her lip and nodded her thanks. Then she looked away again, as if preoccupied—I wondered if she was speaking silently to the birds.

I turned back and looked up to find that Zac was looking down at me. At that moment I didn't realize how comical we both looked—he was so tall and lanky, while I was so short and willowy. We were an unlikely pair.

He reached down and stroked my hair as he'd done before, and we just sat there, still as statues, staring into each other's eyes, as the wind whistled all around and we flew onward into the dawn.

**I'm not going to make the Wynac relationship very Mary Stu (Mary-Sue, Gary-Stu), but I'm just being careful, since this is my very first try at romance—so if you have any suggestions about how I should go about this, please tell me! **

**And thanks again to my reviewers:**

_Azncakegrl_

_FantasyFan-WriterGirl_

_olympianchef213_

_Anonymous Friend _(Hint: Space out the sections of your e-mail address, e.g. My e-mail is irethundomielcelebrindal at gmail. com.)

_Sheva Das_

_RaechelleMarie_

_Element Wolf_

_Ultimacy On High_

**I'll keep you posted! (Oh, and may I ask a favor? In your reviews, please specify what you like best or worst about each chapter—it really brightens my day. Thanks! :D)**


	12. Chapter 12: A Jack Attacked by Aces

**Thanks for all the encouragement and the reviews! I'm so sorry it took me a while to update—my older sister was very sick, and I had to nurse her back to health.**

**Anonymous Friend: Forget the confusing thing about the e-mail. I'll just answer your question(s) here. Yes, Percy and Annabeth are already officially together. And no, Percy is not making sheep eyes at Wynter, if that's what you're thinking! :D Also, don't worry about Imani. She's not going to play a romantic role here.**

**And now, presenting Chapter 12!**

Chapter 12: A Jack Attacked by Aces

"Imani! Look out!"

I ducked just in time as Imani jerked her raven backward and swooped down low over my head. Dark shadows spotted the lightening golden sky in the distance, but they were moving swiftly at a nearly inhuman speed. I followed Imani's example and tugged my raven to the side to slow it down.

"Winnie? What's happening?"

"Monster attack," I gasped in reply. "Hold on tight to me, Zac."

Thalia was quick. Before we could even discern the distinct shape of the cloud of shadows flying at us, she whipped out her Hunter's weapons and let loose a silver arrow. The shadow swiftly parted and let the arrow pass through it without doing any harm.

Just then Percy gasped. "Thalia! Stop! Don't shoot!"

"What—"

"It's the pegasi!"

Annabeth's stormy grey eyes grew misty and widened in recognition. "There's Blackjack! But what is he doing here? He should be at camp!"

With an echoing neigh, the roan winged horse fluttered by and hovered in the air before us. He looked so proud and beautiful, like a winged Thoroughbred, and yet…there was something about his eyes. They should have been a glistening marble hue, but now they were red. Blood red.

"Fall back! Don't go near them!" I shouted.

The other pegasi arrived and suddenly rained down on us, beating our arms and faces with their tough hooves and scattering ravens' feathers with their razor-sharp teeth. Annabeth shouted something and brandished her bronze knife to keep her attacker at bay.

Warm breath brushed my ear. "Winnie, stay down," whispered Zac. "I'll take care of this."

"Zac, no—"

"Please, Winnie. You saved us from the griffin. Now it's my turn."

At last I nodded and flattened myself against the back of the raven. I felt Zac standing up and groping behind for his bow; he notched a golden arrow, quickly calculated his target, and let it fly.

"Zac! Not Blackjack!" called Percy.

Zac smiled grimly. He took another arrow and shot again.

His arrow rammed home.

Blackjack's body jerked and twitched in midair; his black wings flapped weakly and flipped out of rhythm. Then, slowly, the crimson light in his eyes faded away, and he floated out into the air on semi-metaphysical cloud of black. The other pegasi, seeing their fallen leader, fell back and retreated, until at last the dawn covered their flight.

Percy was staring openmouthed at Zac, who was still standing with his bow in his hand. His sea-green eyes shone brightly with hurt; then suddenly they clouded over with an intense hatred. "You killed Blackjack."

Zac shook his head. "No, I didn't."

"You did."

"No, I didn't."

"Yes."

"No."

"You're a liar."

"Why, thank you."

I looked up and sighed in exasperation. "Guys, calm down! What really happened here?"

Imani suddenly spoke. "Percy, he didn't kill your horse. He just shot him. Did you see his eyes? Zac actually save Blackjack from the plague."

Realization finally dawned in Percy's eyes.

"I get it!" said Annabeth. "This person—this _dark force_, or whatever it is—is trying to infect both half-bloods and magical animals so he can use them for his own purposes!"

Thalia looked worried (as usual). "Did we really save Blackjack? How long will his awakening last?"

"Hopefully for eternity," said Zac firmly.

"Meanwhile," I broke in, "we have to get to L.A. Fast."

I~I~I~I~I

It was already noon by the time we at last alighted for refreshment at the rear of a deserted public park. We were somewhat hidden by the screen of trees, so I didn't worry a bit about mortals sighting something strange.

We collapsed onto the benches and quickly brought out whatever food we could spare­—Thalia and Imani had packed some leftover roast rabbit in their backpacks, which they hastily proceeded to serve cold with some bottles of Gatorade from Camp Half-Blood.

"So, where are we now?" I asked no one in particular.

As usual, Thalia was on track (being a Hunter, you see). "We're in southern California right now," she replied. Maybe a hundred more miles north, and we'll be at L.A."

"Great. One hundred more miles of monsters," muttered Percy.

Annabeth glared at him. (Oh, Zeus—just what we needed. Another fight.) "Don't be so dour, Perseus Jackson."

The worry filled my eyes. "Stop thinking about that, everyone. We have to focus on what we need to do. And right now that is to follow the sign and find Kronos' grave."

There, I thought. That should do it.

At least it worked on the girls. Zac still looked slightly confused; Percy was still scowling.

Suddenly a golden glow filled the little copse with godly light. I whirled.

The goddess smiled and flipped her shimmering dark curls over her shoulder. Her deep blue eyes shone mischievously. "Greetings, young half-bloods!"

**I think this particular goddess's identity is pretty easy to guess. But fire ahead! Tell me who you think it is!**

**Thanks again to my reviewers:**

_Cerebella_

_sean115920_

_Azncakegrl_

_FantasyFan-WriterGirl_

_olympianchef213_

_Anonymous Friend_

_Sheva Das_

_RaechelleMarie_

_Element Wolf_

_Ultimacy On High_

**I'll keep you posted! (And don't forget to specify what you like best or worst about each chapter! Thanks! :D)**

**And by the way, I am currently accepting no more character profiles for this story. Sorry! You'll just have to wait for my next fanfic if you want your character to be included! Thank you for your patience!**


	13. Chapter 13: A Simply Ravishing Weapon

**As always, thanks for the reviews. Sorry I wasn't able to reply or update sooner—the computer is almost never available. So now, here it is.**

**Anonymous Friend: You got it! 'Tis Aphrodite!**

Chapter 13: A Simply _Ravishing_ Weapon

In one millisecond Percy's cheeks were beet red. "Lady Aphrodite…"

The goddess smiled and giggled in a most ungodly fashion. "What a perfect, tragic, _beautiful_ love story right here! And another one, too!" She turned to me and winked.

I sighed and shook my head and resigned myself to nibbling my cold meat.

"Oh, dear, please _do_ refrain from eating with your hands," Aphrodite entreated me.

I was already rather averse to the fact that I was in the presence of the most immature goddess on Olympus. I twisted my face in disgust. "Um…why should I?"

"Because, dear, it's what the _barbarians_ do!"

I growled and tossed my half-gnawed bone at her head in defiance. Ugh. Wrong choice, as usual. When would I ever learn to respect the gods?

Aphrodite successfully dodged the rabbit leg and pouted moodily. "Oh, why oh _why_ did your mother have to send _me_? I, a poor, misunderstood, mistreated beautiful young goddess who's only minding her own business…"

"What do you want?" I demanded harshly. Zac stepped on my toe as hard as he could, nearly crushing it.

Her scowl morphed into a smirk, now that she had seized my curiosity. "Your mother Hecate sent me to deliver something," she said, with a beguiling lilt in her voice. She dangled something in her hand.

"Why couldn't she send someone more sensible, like Hermes?" I burst out.

"Because," she replied, drawing out her words slowly with an unbearable emphasis (as if I were a moron), "this is _my_ field. Lipstick, love, and jewelry. She's sent you a simply _ravishing_ little charm."

She tossed it to me, and I caught it between my knees. I held it up for closer inspection. It was a thin gold bracelet that just fit perfectly around my narrow wrist; the metal band was studded with tiny undulating patterns of emeralds, rubies, sapphires, and amethysts. It was superbly light and jingled slightly whenever I moved my hand.

"Thanks," I began, "but what is it for?"

"Why, it's a secret weapon, or course!" cried Aphrodite, appalled at my ignorance. She flashed me a juicy, mischievous smile. "Remember, your mother told you that you have a secret power. You will discover what it is—in time."

She drew a pink heart of clouds around Zac and me and disappeared in a flash of light.

"Oh bother!" I rolled my eyes and tugged at the cloud around us. Zac was biting his lip, Percy was blushing, Thalia was looking stern, Imani was giving me a thumbs-up, and Annabeth was giggling uncontrollably.

I~I~I~I~I

At long last we caught a cab on its way back to L.A. The driver, of course, was an ordinary mortal and thought we were a group of hiking teens on our way back home. He asked no questions and took us on the direct route to the city.

In the back seat, I fiddled with my bracelet. After a while I slipped it off to see if there was any way of finding out my secret through, perhaps, a message on it. Sure enough, I discerned some tiny markings deep in the gold on the inside of the band.

I handed the bracelet to Annabeth. "Can you read that?"

She nodded and recited:

"_The world of night is at thy feet_

_When fire and ice in thee doth meet_."

I waited. "That's it? Nothing else?"

She shook her head. "No, that's it. Just two lines, that's all."

I scratched my head and slipped the bracelet back on. "Hmm…"

Imani nudged me. "We're here!"

Gratefully I grabbed my backpack and stepped out of the door, eager for some fresh air to clear my thoughts. (On the contrary, L.A. was rather too smoky for my liking). I waited as Zac dolefully doled out some cash and joined the rest of us.

I took a deep breath, overwhelmed by the huge skyscrapers and rushing cars and honking horns. Then I imagined that I was back in NYC, and my old skills and energy flowed back into me.

Thalia sensed my next question. "Yeah, we have to walk a few miles north through the city. Then we should be able to tell where we are, if we do get there…"

"How can we tell?"

"I was already here during the Titan War," she replied, none too happily. "And since I was one of the close friends who helped Percy on his final quest, I know where Kronos was buried."

"You mean Luke," murmured Annabeth.

An uncomfortable silence settled like dust around us. As usual, I was the hyper one. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

Imani nodded quietly and followed right after me as I bounded up the sidewalk. The others reluctantly trailed behind.

About an hour later (or as far as I could tell by watching the sun), Thalia suddenly caught up with me. "Wynter, stop. This is where it is."

I started and glanced around to see where we were. To my surprise, we were approximately in the middle of nowhere.

Allow me to explain. We were standing directly in the center of a huge deserted parking lot behind what appeared to be a twenty-floor hotel. The parking lot was roughly squarish, and directly across from where I stood was the back door to the presumed hotel. I didn't see anything else for miles around.

"That's the entrance to Hades," Thalia pointed out, indicating the dark, forbidding glass hotel. (**A/N: I don't remember what the real entrance to Hades was, so I changed it.**) She turned back to the parking lot. "And this is where _he_ is buried."

"I don't see anything," murmured Imani behind me.

"Wait!" I said excitedly. "The sign! What did it say again, Annabeth?"

"Well, the first two lines were 'The east meets west/Where he doth rest.' Obviously that has already been fulfilled, since we've found that it's Kronos' grave we're looking for, and we're standing right on top of it," explained Annabeth. "And then next there was 'Apollo's power/Shall save the hour.'"

I pursed my lips. "Apollo's power…what is Apollo's power, I wonder…" Suddenly I turned to Zac. "Zac, you're Apollo's son. What do you think Apollo's power is?"

He shrugged and looked sincerely confused. "Dad has a lot of powers," he began. "For one, he's the god of the sun—"

I gasped. "Yes! That's it!"

"What?"

"Annabeth, remember that architecture book you showed me when I first met you? You were studying this big ancient Egyptian structure—a _pyramid_ or something like that—and you told me that the people who built it left a hole in the top of the stone to let in some light for the dead person's soul. Remember?"

She nodded. "I remember. But what does that have to do with…this?"

"Apollo's the god of the sun!" I cried. "That means his light will have some sort of power in opening the grave!"

"I get it!" Annabeth finished for me. "In ancient times, the alchemist Ambrose discovered that the sun's rays can convert the ruby's glow into laser energy. Isn't that what you have in mind?"

I nodded excitedly. Then my face fell. "But there isn't any ruby around here…"

"Maybe there is," she said. "How about the scythe?"

Not very hopeful, I dug into my skirt pocket and brought out the miniature curved blade. I handed it to her. "There's certainly no ruby _there_."

"Wait! Yes, there is!" said Percy, grabbing the scythe. Annabeth sighed in annoyance at his bad manners (although I probably would have done the same thing). Quickly he brushed away the dust from the metal with the back of his sleeve to reveal a tiny, roughly hewn scarlet jewel glistening in the center.

"Great!" said Thalia, mildly sarcastic. "And now where do we put it to catch the sun's rays?"

"In the west, of course," pointed out Zac. "It's afternoon, and my dad is driving home. The gods obviously knew we would arrive at this time, so there must be a place to put it."

Eagerly I joined him on hands and knees and scoured the pavement for some sort of hole or sign. Suddenly I cried out in triumph. "Everyone, looky what I found!"

The others hurried over. Imani examined the tiny mark I had discovered etched in the concrete. "It's an engraving of a scythe," she said.

"Like one of Daedalus' signs!" said Annabeth. "I think we just have to press it."

I reached out and did so. Immediately a small, circular chunk of rock slid back to reveal a narrow hole. I took the scythe from Percy and stuck it upright in the pavement: it fit perfectly.

"All right now, everyone, stand back!" called Annabeth. "Laser energy can blast you all the way to Hades."

"Great, I was just thinking of visiting Nico sometime," commented Percy.

I grinned and stepped back. I glanced up and watched anxiously as the sun slowly, ever so slowly, made its full circuit and began its descent into the west.

"Dad's sluggish today," observed Zac.

Just then the clouds scudded away, and the full light of the sun broke through and fell directly on the ruby portal in the blade of the scythe. The rays shot through at an intense speed in a brilliant flash of red. I whirled to follow its path: it struck the spot right in front of where I was standing. Slowly but surely, a rumble beneath us grew until it roared, and a hairline crack traced all around me in a square.

With a rush and a whirl of dust, it crashed down.

I screamed and tumbled to my knees, scraping my shins on the rough rock. Shakily I stood to see where I was. A long tunnel extended into the inky blackness ahead of me, and all around me there floated an impervious cloud of blue mist.

**Sorry this chapter was so long.**

**Frankly, I'm obsessed with archaeology. Have you seen "The Holy Rose" episode in the '70s show **_**MacGyver**_**? This part was inspired by it.**

**Thanks for all the reviews. Keep reviewing! (And could someone please tell me, if possible, what the entrance to Hades really was like in the books? Thanks!) :D**


	14. Chapter 14: Lipstick Traces Our Path

**And so the adventure continues! (*bows as curtains part*)**

Chapter 14: Lipstick Traces Our Path

"Shhh! Quiet! What's that? I hear something," I hissed at Percy, who was bumbling clumsily along at my heels. (Imani, being the daughter of the goddess of night, was deathly silent.)

Just as the words left my mouth, the rustling sound also stopped. I cursed myself under my breath for being so careless. Then a plan struck me. "Zac, go ahead with the others," I whispered as softly as I could, indicating the narrow tunnel ahead. "I'll catch up."

Zac nodded and did as I told. I breathed a sigh of relief that for once, he hadn't argued. I sucked in my stomach and flattened myself against the cold, dank stone wall, hoping to high Olympus that my flaming red hair wouldn't shine so brightly now.

I was almost immediately rewarded by a soft shuffling, as of someone skulking around and groping forward in the dark. With a triumphant cry I pounced on my prey and dragged her out into the light.

"Demi! I knew it!" I shouted.

The daughter of Aphrodite squirmed and struggled, but I had learned my lesson. This time I tightened my grip and didn't let go. I dragged her up the passageway to where the others were standing, waiting for me.

I shook the wide-eyed girl roughly. "What do you say we do with this treacherous little mink?"

"Pink mink!" said Percy. "It rhymes! She's a pink mink!"

Sure enough, Demi was flushing furiously.

"I know," said Thalia practically. "If she's such a mink, I'll tell you what we do with minks on the Hunt. We tie them up."

Demi gasped and shook her head, whimpering. She doubled her efforts to break free, but I held her fast by her hair and jerked her head back viciously.

"Please," she simpered, "I wasn't spying!"

"Then what were you doing, then? Taking a tour across America?" I demanded. "Oh, we know all about your doings, Demi Cochemagne. You've been spying on us ever since I got this quest. And you serve the dark force."

Apparently I had hit it right on the nail. She melted in a puddle of tears. "Please, don't punish me! I'll tell you everything, I swear I will!"

"First we tie you, then we can proceed with the interrogation," declared Thalia. She produced a roll of silver cord from her backpack and quickly proceeded to handcuff the thrashing culprit in my hands. Then she continued, "All right, first question: who's your boss?"

To my immense disappointment, Demi looked sincere. "I don't know. He never told me his name."

"Can't you at least describe him?" I said.

She chewed her lip. "He was very tall and muscular. He always dressed himself in black, like he was in mourning. I asked him about that, but he was too secretive. He's really cute though, you know—"

"Get on with it," I broke in sternly.

She sobered. "He had mismatched eyes, one gold and the other deep blue. When's he's happy, they turn all blue. When he's mad, they're both gold. And his hair is jet black with a thin streak of red. Really, I think he looks too punk for my liking when he dyes his hair like that—"

"How old is he?" interrupted Thalia.

"Oh, how am I supposed to know that?" said Demi, pouting. "He could be any age. He could be a teen, he could be my grandfather, he could be an uncle, for all I know—"

"Where did you meet him? And what were his doings?"

"I met him at midnight once at the edge of camp," said Demi dreamily. "Oh, it was just so perfectly _romantic_. I was the only one on patrol at the border, and there he was, so tall and swift, and he promised me he would give me anything if I would do something for him. So of course I agreed to sort of…find out once in a while…what you were doing, and who your parent was, Wynter. Oh, it was so thrilling! Frankly, I think he's in _love_ with me—"

"You are utterly disgusting," I stated. "And where does this—this _creature_ hide?"

"That's the fun part of it," giggled Demi. (I rolled my eyes.) "He told me he loved the darkness. Isn't that just so wonderfully _mysterious_? I asked him where his house was, and he said he lives with his father. And then I told him how simply awful it is to have to live with one's father, especially an old one, and he said—"

"Don't let's get into that right now," I said sternly. "Did he tell you his father's name?"

She frowned. "It wasn't a very pretty name, I can assure you. He said his father was Kronos. What a most unmanly name, isn't it—"

"Shut up!" I roared. "This is no game, Demi Cochemagne. Do you realize the gravity of what you're saying? Are you sure his name was Kronos?"

"I'm not senile," she protested, offended.

I shoved her away in frustration and disgust intermingled. I turned to the others, heaving a deep sigh. "That is the least I ever expected."

"It's not surprising, though," said Percy. "I knew I hadn't destroyed him completely last time."

"Wait!" said Annabeth. "Remember when Lady Artemis came over to camp, the night of our quest? She said that the dark force is half-Titan and half-god. If Demi's on the right track, we got the Titan part, but what about the god part? Who is this person's mother?"

"Hera?" suggested Zac. "She _does_ tend to be self-serving at times. She could have helped Kronos in the Titan War, you know."

I shook my head. "I don't think that's the right answer."

"Well, what should we do, then?" asked Imani. I glanced at her and suddenly found myself thinking how beautiful and innocent she looked at the same time. Her shining amethyst eyes penetrated my skin.

Suddenly it struck me. "He said…he said…he lives with his father…this is Kronos' grave…" I gasped. "He could be living at the end of this very tunnel!"

Thalia started. Obviously she didn't like unpleasant surprises, either.

"Oh Gaia," I swore under my breath. "So what do we do now?"

"We wait," was Annabeth's surprising answer. "Remember the sign: 'Await at nine/Another sign.'"

I sighed.

Suddenly Zac gasped. "Demi's gone!"

**Oh, oh, oh, a cliffie! You're probably all wondering how Demi got away. I'm not telling you yet. :-)**

**By the way, it was just **_**so**_** much fun writing Demi's lines. Isn't she just perfectly exasperating? I felt like wringing her pretty little neck when I wrote this…**

**Please keep reviewing, please, please, please!**

**And thanks to:**

_Cerebella_

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_olympianchef213_

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_Azncakegrl_

_percabeth4ever_


	15. Chapter 15: Certified Mail

**I'm really so, so sorry for not updating sooner. Because the second semester of school is starting, I was really busy with my subjects and couldn't get a hold on the computer for a few nights. But with apologies aside, and after spending one midnight at my dad's laptop, here it is! Tada!**

**olympianchef213: Thanks so much for that encouragement! I really needed it. I was worried that readers would get bored with longer chapters and stop reading and reviewing. Really, you should see how I really write—my chapters can climb upward of 5,000 words! Well, if you like it, I'll make chapters a bit longer hereafter.**

**Anonymous Friend: Ah, you've become endeared to our little "darling Wynter"! No, don't worry about any problems with Hades. And yes, I know, Demi is so sly and exasperating. Glad you liked it. You're one of my biggest fans. ;D**

**RaechelleMarie: I'm sorry, I never meant to kill you! Suspense isn't supposed to be **_**that**_** engaging…**

**Disclaimer: Don't own purple Hallmark envelopes.**

Chapter 15: Certified Mail

I whirled. "_What_?"

Zac was speechless. "I don't—I don't know how she did it! I was watching her, honest! And then she just disappeared!"

"By Ares' spear!" I cursed. "We just had her! Now she'll run off and tell her punk boss all about our plans!"

(Zac flinched at my language.)

Thalia sighed. "It's her ability to teleport—_again_. But I think she'll be delayed a while first, because I tied her hands with Hunter's rope. That's very tough."

"By Zeus' lightning, I hope you're right," I grumbled. "Anyone got the time?"

"Eight o'clock," Imani said quietly, without even glancing at a watch. (Boy, I was starting to wish I were a daughter of Nyx. Then I could read in the dark, too.)

"Another hour, and then the sign," said Annabeth brightly, though I could tell she was faking her joviality.

"What sorta sign is it supposed to be?" queried Percy of no one in particular.

I shrugged. Suddenly I shivered.

"You cold?" whispered Zac.

I nodded. I was only wearing a thin purple t-shirt.

"Here," he said, and took off his own light denim jacket and draped it loosely around my shoulders.

The shadows hid my smile. "Thanks."

"Sure." Then he announced to the others, "Okay, anyone thinking of dinner?"

Grinning, we all rummaged in our backpacks and dug out the last of our provisions. My pitiful supply yielded a mini bag of chips and a cold deli sandwich purchased earlier at a convenience store. Nevertheless, the six of us shared some sort of common emotion of excitement, and our meager dinner was rather cheerful considering the pending circumstances.

"It's eight fifty-eight," Imani suddenly announced.

I straightened. "Look, I don't know what this sign will be or how it will come," I told the others. "But I have a feeling that maybe one of the gods might visit us to give us the sign."

Just as the words left my mouth, the dark tunnel suddenly filled with golden light. I stood and turned.

I didn't recognize him at first. He had dark straw-colored hair and dancing sky blue eyes; a baseball cap was perched cockily atop his windswept locks. A leather briefcase of some sort was slung across his shoulder.

The god grinned and waved. "Hey, kids! Remember me?"

Percy gaped. "You have something for me from my dad?"

Hermes' smile faded. "Well, no. I mean, yes…but not exactly."

Percy stared. "…"

"First of all," continued Hermes brightly, "I'm going to give you young half-bloods the sign you've been waiting for! Right here!" He took an envelope from his mailbag and waved it triumphantly in the air.

I reached up and snatched it (I'm terribly sorry now, but I couldn't help it). "What's it say?"

"Have Annabeth read it," Hermes suggested with a wink. He studied me for a moment, then suddenly said out of the blue, "Hey, you're the Hecate kid, aren't you? Nice hair."

"Um…" I glanced down at my fiery tresses, then back up at him. "Uh…thanks?"

He laughed. "Come on, chill out. It's what I do best. And here's a note from your mom." He handed me a small purple Hallmark envelope. Then he turned to the ever-awed Percy and produced a somewhat larger blue letter envelope with a flourish. "And something from your dad."

"Gee, wow," was all Percy could say.

"Sorry, kiddos, nothing else for the rest of you!" announced Hermes. With a cheery farewell and a flash of light, he vanished.

"All right, what does the sign say?" I asked, placing the envelope in Annabeth's hand.

She took it in silence and scanned it briefly. The she recited:

"_The sleeper's eyes shall open when_

_The chosen five descend_

_To where the king of dead doth reign,_

_And darkness is his friend._

_The man bewitched stand'st 'neath the tree_

_Whose fruit and drink doth taunt._

'_Tis here the potion thou shalt see;_

_And them _he_ canst not haunt._"

"Why is 'he' emphasized?" I asked. "Who is 'he'?"

"The son of Kronos, I think," said Annabeth. "But this sign is even more puzzling than the first. Let's see, who is the sleeper, I wonder?"

"Maybe he represents the kids afflicted by the plague back at camp," I suggested.

"Oh yes, that must be it," she conceded. "Now of course, we know that the chosen five are precisely—us. 'Where the king of dead doth reign' obviously means we have to go down to Hades."

Zac shuddered. "Ugh, Hades…"

"You're afraid of the dark?" I teased him. "Of course, your dad's Apollo. So you want neat, bright, spacious places, naturally."

He grinned good-naturedly.

"The man bewitched stand'st 'neath the tree," repeated Annabeth thoughtfully. "Hmm, now this one really stumps me…"

Thalia and Imani also looked like they were thinking hard, but they gave up with a shrug. It seemed that I wasn't alone in being rusty with Greek mythology.

Suddenly Percy burst out, "Hey! I know! It's Tantalus!"

I glanced at him, puzzled. "Who…?"

"He became director of camp for a while when Chiron was gone," Percy informed me. He turned to Annabeth. "I remember that where he came from in Hades, he stood in a river beneath a tree and always tried to eat and drink, but the water flowed away and the fruit disappeared each time he reached for them."

"Geez, he must have been really bad when he was on earth," I remarked.

Annabeth was growing excited, I could tell. "Yes! That's it! Perseus Jackson, I hereby crown you the King of Cogitating Kelp Heads."

"Uh…" was his vague reply. (I assume he meekly accepted the title.)

"So, what do we do with this Tantalus?" I broke in.

Annabeth giggled in her rapture. "No, Wynter, we don't _do_ anything with _him_. He stays right there in Hades. But according to the sign, we should be able to find the 'potion' or 'cure'—whatever it is—in the tree that grows over him."

"What does it look like?" asked Imani.

"I don't know, honestly. That's what I hate about the gods," admitted Annabeth. "They're always so mysterious and make our lives harder down here."

I sighed. "Well, there's nothing else we can do about it. What was that last line again? Something about haunting?"

"And them _he_ canst not haunt," repeated Annabeth. "So, once we find the cure and bring it back to camp and heal the campers, this pesky son of Kronos can't defeat us anymore. At least, that's what I get out of it…"

"I don't think _pesky_ is the right term," muttered Thalia.

"At any rate, at least we're on the right track," I said. (Of course, I _knew_ we had a long way to go.) "That's looking…er…on the bright side…?"

I~I~I~I~I

We decided to catch a few hours of sleep before going on to the Realm of the Dead. Of course, I thought, we had to be fully prepared to be depressed.

When I was sure no one was awake or watching, I dug into the pocket of my skirt and brought out the purple envelope from my mom again. I broke the seal and drew out the paper, but no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't read. Boy, learning to read seemed even harder than doing a split.

"Want me to read it for you?" whispered Zac.

I started. Was he always awake and watching me when I thought he was supposed to be asleep? I opened my mouth to say something, but then I thought better of it and simply nodded.

Zac sat up and studied the letter in my hand. Then he read softly,

_Dearest Wynter,_

_I have been watching you and your friends on your quest ever since the beginning. I must commend you for your great common sense and leadership skills. I have no doubt that you will be a fine young warrior someday._

_I understand that you received the gold bracelet I sent you through Aphrodite (you see, she is the only one among the twelve Olympians who still calls me her friend). I know that you discovered shortly after the two mysterious lines set in the bracelet. I cannot explain them fully to you, but I can give you simple instructions that may help you._

_When you descend to Hades on the morrow and search out Tantalus' tree, you will find hidden in its branches a small gold capsule filled with blue powder. This is the cure for the plague which the sign speaks of; the capsule is in the same magic set as your bracelet. You must take it and exit quickly and return to camp to heal the afflicted half-bloods before it is too late. I am not certain, but I am quite sure of my senses that the son of Kronos will lead an ambush against Camp Half-Blood as soon as he can. I can use my powers to delay him, but you must also make haste and warn Chiron._

_When the battle is upon you, I know, you will be greatly outnumbered, but you must __never__ give up or retreat. Help will come quickly. If you find yourself failing, then I give you permission to open the capsule and consume the rest of its contents. But do __not__ do this unless there is completely no hope, and help has failed to arrive; for I do not know at this point the strength of your own magic. If you are not strong enough, you may die._

_Have faith and continue with high hope on the rest of your journey. I wish you and your friends well._

_Love,_

_Mother Hecate_

I stared at the paper in my hand in disbelief. Die? I could die? Why?

I looked up at Zac, my ice blue eyes melting with unshed tears. "Pray to Olympus it is not true," I whispered.

He sighed and wrapped me in his warm, comforting arms. "Don't cry, Winnie. It will be all right. I will protect you. I won't let that happen, ever."

Suddenly an eerie, piercing shriek filled the echoing recesses of the tunnel. I gasped and flew to my feet, my sword drawn; the blade was already glowing blue. Wings whooshed by and brushed our faces; I felt sharp claws on my shoulder.

"Monsters!" I shouted. "Run!"

**Haha, another wicked cliffie. But I order you not to die from the suspense, okay? I'll update as soon as I can.**

**Hope you liked it! Please review!**

**And thanks also to my regular reviewers:**

_olympian girl_

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_Element Wolf_

_the Minotaur_

_Sheva Das_


	16. Chapter 16: DOA, Preferably Dead

**100 REVIEWS?!? Guys, thanks! That is so…er…insanely…supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!!! I mean, I only got 27 reviews for my first fanfic **_**Forever**_**, and that was already fifteen chapters! Wow! Thanks **_**so**_** much!**

**Sorry—**_**again**_**—for not updating sooner. I should have uploaded this chapter at least a day earlier, but again, I'm busy writing a research paper for the midterm, and I'm writing my novel, and I'm also translating a collection of fairytales into Latin, so…you get the picture.**

**And now, presenting Chapter 16! Voila!**

**Anonymous Friend: Yay! I'm glad my advice helped! And thanks for letting me be your beta reader (in advance)!**

Chapter 16: DOA (Preferably Dead)

"Stand behind me! Duck for cover!" I yelled.

But Zac was obstinate as ever. He whipped out his bow and notched a golden arrow in two seconds; then he sprang to my side and cocked the shaft into the eerie darkness.

Annabeth did not heed my warning; on the contrary, she leaped forward, glowing bronze knife in hand. "It's the Furies!" she shouted above the whistle of wings and whips. "Watch your head!"

I had no choice but to take her advice. I dodged Thalia's silver arrow as it whistled past my ear; then I jumped out at my assailant. I was immediately rewarded by a hiss and a baring of glistening fangs in the dark, and the sharp pain of her claws digging into my shoulder. I growled and slashed blindly at what I vaguely presumed was the back of her neck; she shrieked and held on even tighter, hissing more loudly and pulling herself closer, as if she wanted to sink her razor-sharp teeth into my arm. Oh, that certainly wasn't a pleasant thought…

Off to my far left, Percy rushed past and stabbed out at one of the closest hags hovering over us. She wailed, and her image wavered uncertainly in the air; then, with a final scream of agony, she faded out of reality into a façade of bluish-grey dust. I nodded my thanks to Percy, who in turn shrugged in affirmative that it was no problem, and turned to take on Annabeth's new dueler.

Meanwhile, Zac and Thalia worked together, hurling arrows randomly at the back on the Fury attached to my trapezius. I danced around wildly in all forms of attempt to fling off my attacker. I didn't even waste breath on shouting for help—I already knew my companions were doing the best they could. My magical blue misty sword was hardly any use, though. In a moment, as I thrashed and kicked at the old monster (and all to no avail), the wizened little Fury writhed her body round, and I found my left arm twisted painfully behind my back and pinned there until numbness set on. I shouted and jerked quickly away as her finger claws came in contact with my face and raked deep into my skin.

I had no choice. The fiery needles of poison shooting up and down my arm were unbearable. With a last groan of resistance, I dropped my sword and rolled away into a corner, breathless. I was panting too hard to muster enough strength to call out to someone to just help me, for Pete's sake.

Imani, who had silently joined the fray, caught sight of my predicament and leaped to my aid. She jerked out her flashing silver dagger from her hidden sheath and stabbed the Fury in question repeatedly in the back. (**A/N: I'm sorry I forgot to ask you about this, Azn-Cake. I'm not sure if Imani had a dagger or a sword. I just thought a dagger would be more fitting in this particular scene, so that's what I put in, if you don't mind.**) Within seconds I began to feel the old hag's talons loosening their grip somewhat on my battered body; with a last piercing shriek, she likewise joined her sisters in the Realm of the Dead, from whence they had flown at us.

I lay in my dark little corner, gasping like a half-dead fish. Zac hurried over and quickly knelt at my side. "Are you okay?" he said urgently.

I shook my head faintly. I could feel my cheek was hot and wet.

He hastily dug into his first-aid kit and produced a wad of gauze to swab away the blood from my wounds (which I constantly seemed to receive nonstop). Then he administered to me some of his last supply of ambrosia. "It will help," he whispered. "At least…just to get you away from here."

I nodded my head and nibbled at the square of celestial food. At last some newfound strength trickled in with each new breath I drew; I scrambled to my feet and stood shakily in the middle of the passage, trying to steady myself before I turned to the others.

"You okay?" asked Annabeth with genuine concern.

I nodded mutely and waved her away. "I'm fine…I'm fine," I panted. "Come on…let's get out of here. Have to get…to Hades."

The other five kids nodded and picked up their fallen weapons; Imani appeared at my elbow and handed me my sword, whose misty bluish hue had faded back into the blade's original, ordinary silver steel. I nodded my thanks and sheathed it, wincing as I moved my left shoulder to do so.

I glanced behind my in apprehension. "What will we do with Demi?" I spoke at last.

"Leave her for now, I say," advised Thalia sagely. "She can't get that far. And we have a far more important mission to accomplish."

I drew a deep breath. "Right. So let's go."

I set my foot forward on the bottom step of the entrance to the passageway, and turned to go.

I~I~I~I~I

Exhausted, worn, and wounded, the six of us tumbled out of the dark recesses of the treacherous, stinking tunnel and sprawled on the ground back in the warmth and (relative) safety of the empty parking lot. I smiled and breathed deeply as fresh night air flowed into my lungs. Then I set my jaw and turned around again.

What I had earlier presumed to be a deserted hotel building turned out to be a multi-floored recording studio, as Annabeth informed me as she read the plaque nailed above the back door: DOA Recording Studios. "Do you think anyone's inside?" I whispered nervously.

She shook her head. "Percy and I have been here before. This is the back of the building; hopefully we can hit the River Styx directly from this entrance, borrow a boat, and sail as fast as we can into Hades."

"What about Cerberus?" queried Zac apprehensively.

"Ah, don't worry about him," broke in Percy with a half-convincing, half-affected smile. "I can play catch with him while you guys go on ahead. I'll catch up with you."

"We can't worry so much about details right now," I said suddenly. "Okay, is everyone ready?"

I glanced around at my quest members. One after another, they all nodded.

I straightened, turned, and twisted the doorknob.

I~I~I~I~I

The passageway we stepped into was dark and oppressively stuffy. "What is this place?" I whispered in the direction I assumed was Annabeth's side.

"This is the hallway that leads to the bathrooms and the kitchen, I think," she whispered back. "Hopefully, if we get past the main lobby without being seen, we can manage to sail without having to pay Charon. It's not Chiron, if that's what you're thinking—it's Charon. Because you see, we've quite run out of drachmas…"

I nodded and motioned to her to follow me. I weighed my choices: either I went right, or I went left. To the right, I could hear the shouts of cooks and the hiss and pop of meat being sautéed and fried. I certainly didn't think such a famous and celestial river would be near the _kitchen_. So I took a deep breath and turned left.

Because I was a dancer, my footsteps were light and did not ring at all on the cold stone floor; unfortunately, I could hear clumsy Percy stumbling blindly in the dark after us. I sighed and motioned furiously to him for the gazillionth time to be quiet. He gave me an exaggerated nod of understanding.

Suddenly I stopped, my body tense and upright. In the distance behind us, I could hear steady footsteps ringing in the hallway, coming closer and closer directly in our direction. I beckoned furiously to the others and ducked into the nearest chamber at hand—the bathroom.

"What if he comes here?" whispered Thalia frantically.

"It's a ladies' room," I pointed out. The others sighed in relief. (Zac, on the other hand, squirmed uncomfortably).

The footsteps rang right at our ears in front of the door and stopped suddenly; with it my heart also skipped a beat. I held my breath. Was it a woman? Was she coming inside? Had the person seen us?

Just as suddenly as they had stopped, the footsteps began again, and this time they moved steadily away back to the right. I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

I flapped my hand at the five others whose faces were peering anxiously over the edge of the wall of the handicapped cubicle. Immediately they pattered out and followed me stealthily out the door again.

This time we encountered no more mysterious invisible persons with ringing footsteps; the remainder of our journey was relatively short and uneventful. At last I caught the sound of water lapping incessantly at stone walls up ahead, and the eerie bluish glow of dancing waves. I proceeded cautiously; I knew we had arrived at the shore of the River Styx.

I motioned to the others to stop and wait for me; carefully I peered round the corner of the wall, once more wishing for the second time in my life that my hair weren't so fiery red. But there was nothing I could do about it. So I spied.

There was only one boat floating at the dock, and there was only one person in it. I bit my lip and turned round again before he could catch sight of me.

"What should we do?" I whispered. "There's someone there! We can't just appear and fool him into thinking we have permission to enter Hades. He'll know right away that we're lying!"

Annabeth nodded and thought. I could tell from the way her grey eyes misted over that her mind was zooming ahead at a thousand miles per hour. At last she looked back up at me, her eyes shining with their steady stormy gaze. "I know," she replied. "Zac, you can distract him. Shoot an arrow or something—but do it farther away. Look, I noticed a passage to the other side just a few feet back. You can sneak over to the other side of this shore and fire into the water. Then of course this boatman will go over to see what it is, and we can rush at him and tie him up. Then we go on alone."

I considered her idea, then simply nodded. "Looks like a good plan. Zac, go ahead."

He hefted his golden bow in a clumsy sort of salute and promptly disappeared.

In less than two minutes, we were rewarded with a shout from what was presumably the boatman's voice. I couldn't resist the pleasure of seeing the look on his face—I boldly peeped round the corner again.

"Who's that?" he cried, grabbing an oar and shaking it fiercely at the invisible threat.

Zac laughed from his hiding place to our far right and shot another arrow.

"I'll get you, you young impudent little rascal, I swear I will!" yelled the old man, shaking his fist and his oar at the same time. (Unfortunately for him, the weight of the oar was too much, and he collapsed for a moment in the bottom of the boat.) Quickly he scrambled to his feet again and glanced anxiously around, as if truly afraid of embarrassment in front of an invisible audience. Then he apparently turned his mind again to the currently pressing manner, and he leaped impulsively out of the boat and onto dry land and tottered down the shore, waving a dull grey kitchen knife at his unknown assailant.

I signaled. Immediately Thalia released the arrow she had held poised for half a minute; it struck true and knocked the old man's butter knife from his hand. Then Annabeth sprang at him from the shadows and deftly positioned herself on his back. She pressed the edge of her blade to the back of his neck. "Don't even dare say another word," she whispered menacingly.

"Help! Help! Murderers!" croaked the boatman obstinately.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," replied Annabeth (we all knew no one could hear his cries, at any rate). She jerked a gag roughly into his mouth and hastily proceeded to tie him up.

Zac appeared again back in the tunnel. "Let's go."

I nodded silently to the others. Percy grabbed the rope that moored to long vessel to the dock and sliced it in half with one stroke of Riptide. Annabeth, Imani, Thalia, Zac, and I scrambled into the boat, with me at the rudder, and he helped us push off and then jumped in also.

And we glided on into the whispering shadows of the river of death.

**Okay, now this was a super long chapter—2,200 words, approximately. Sorry if I bored you a bit, but I couldn't help it. ;D**

**I have so many reviewers that I can't count them anymore! But anyway, here's the list of gratitude to such wonderful reviewers to the best of my memory:**

_Poseidon'sGirl_

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_Anonymous Friend_

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_Element Wolf_

_the Minotaur_

_percabeth4ever_

_emeraldangel597_

_The Angels Have the Blue Box_

**and, last but definitely not least, **_Sheva Das_**.**

**Hope you enjoyed it! Please review, review, review!**


	17. Chapter 17: Too Alive

**Sorry. Yet. Again. For. Not. Updating. Sooner. Glad you all understand (I'm assuming you do)! I was busy writing my other fanfic **_**Whisper**_** and my new one called **_**Two Pi**_**, plus I was very busy over the weekend (as usual) with my family. Actually, contrary to what many of you may think, I may not be updating as frequently on the weekends or be available to answer e-mails, PMs, and chats, since my family and I are usually out having fun (yes!) on Saturday, and on Sunday I have church and an extra family snack in the afternoon. So, expect more frequent updates during the week, since that's when I have homework as an excuse to be on the computer! XD**

**Anonymous Friend: Thanks again for all your support! And don't forget to contact me to inform me when you have your own account set up!**

**And now, Chapter 17!**

Chapter 17: Too Alive

The eerie sound of silence surrounded us like the soft rustle of silken curtains. I watched in silence as the oars dipped up, down, up, down, up, down into the black rippling water. In the back of my mind, I wondered what kinds of creatures could live their whole lives in the depths of those murky, dangerously silent waters…

A soft movement caught my attention; it was Zac rising and sliding onto my bench at the back of the dory. "Are you tired yet?" he whispered. "I can take over at the rudder, if you like."

I nodded wordlessly and moved aside to make room for him at the tiller. He took it silently.

We stared ahead into the endless, inky blackness, neither speaking nor breathing. At last I could no longer bear the oppressive silence and said, "How much farther, do you think?"

He seemed to have almost been waiting for me to speak. "I think only a mile more, from what Percy told me," he replied readily. He paused, then quickly turned and studied me with his deep, searching golden eyes. "Winnie? Are you scared?"

I shrugged and shook my head, but I couldn't raise my eyes to look at him. In reality, I was.

I think he could sense I was lying. "It's okay. Don't worry. I won't let anyone harm you, as long as I can do anything about it."

Suddenly it struck me that the six of us were all making our lives harder by putting on such grim masks. I chuckled and grinned up at Zac. "As long as you're not in the dark," I teased him. "Right now you're scared because we're all in the dark here. I know, because otherwise you wouldn't have asked if I'm afraid."

Zac took the joke with a dorky grin in return. "Aye, aye, too true, too true," he mourned with a comedian's face.

We both burst into irrepressible laughter. We didn't even care when the four others turned and stared at the lunatic pair of us.

Just then the river began to flow somewhat faster, and the tunnel we were following somewhat hemmed in on both sides. Percy skillfully helped steer our sleek, silent vessel round a tricky bend and pass an outlet where the river branched off. At least he was helpful in _some_ way.

"We're almost there," said Annabeth out of the blue.

I breathed a sigh of relief. "Enough of this silence, then," I growled impatiently at the chuckling water.

It was only two minutes longer before we at last saw that the tunnel broadened and opened up into a large, isolated cove of some sort, with the river flowing away somewhere through a crevice beneath the rock wall. We quickly docked the boat and clambered out; Percy insisted that we take along at least one oar as a means of "protection." I sighed and rolled my eyes and turned to lead my quest members through the only passage possible—the narrow tunnel at the side of the cave leading down into darkness. (**A/N: This chapter about Hades is somewhat more descriptive than what some of you may remember, since Mr. Riordan didn't say much about the surroundings.**)

The air grew steadily warmer the farther we went down into that oppressive, crushing blackness. I wondered why I hadn't thought, or at least Zac hadn't thought (being a son of the sun god!), to bring a flashlight or matches of some sort. And then it struck me that maybe one of my gifts from my mother would work…

Instinctively I reached out my left hand to grasp the hilt of my sword and drew it out. I started in surprise: it was glowing a piercing, pulsing blue.

I knew what that meant. I jerked out my hand suddenly to stop the others who were following close behind. "Stop!" I whispered urgently. "My blade tells me there's a monster nearby."

"That's probably Cerberus," Annabeth whispered back.

"Is it safe?" I asked anxiously.

To my second surprise that day (or night, we couldn't tell), Imani stepped forward. "I'll distract the dog while you go ahead," she volunteered.

"That's very altruistic, but also too quixotic," quoth Zac.

I jabbed him. "Imani's right, we need someone to do that." I turned to the purple-eyed girl and laid a hand on her shoulder, pressing something small and jingling in her hand. "Take my tambourine," I said. "It's all I have. When you get in trouble, just shake it and throw it as far as you can. I will hear it. It's magical, I believe."

She nodded and took the small goatskin instrument in silence. Then, without another word, she melted into the blackness.

I sighed. "Does she know what to do?"

Thalia nodded. "Oh yes. I've been helping her these past few days. She's a pretty smart kid, if you ask me. She can fight well with just a dagger too."

I smiled my first smile in hours. "Shall we get on, then?"

A few minutes later, the tunnel suddenly ended and sprawled itself out on the ground in a vast expanse of mist and bones as far as the eye could see. I gasped and involuntarily took a step back. "What is this place?"

"This is the entrance to Hades," said Annabeth grimly. "If we can get past the skeleton guards, we can sneak through the gate with the other souls and find our way to Tartarus."

I glanced back over my shoulder. Annabeth was right—there _were_ skeletons patrolling the entire expanse, surveying the line of straggling souls, young and old, that shuffled and filed up closer in an endless queue through a black stone arch that marked the gate. "How do we do that?" I asked.

"We just have to somehow conceal our packs, and then we can pass for dead people, I think," suggested Percy, knitting his brows together in the effort to think of a plan.

I shook my head. "Impossible. We look too…_alive_."

Thalia glared fiercely at the skeletons out there in the field. "Grah…!"

"So what do you suggest?" asked Annabeth. Apparently, even she was at a loss for words.

"I know," I said suddenly. "We're doing this wrong. We're assuming that we will be able to complete this quest by sneaking around and traveling through Hades secretly. But that won't work. What _will_ work is this: we make our presence known completely to the Lord of the Dead."

The four kids stared at me. "_What_?"

I~I~I~I~I

I made a deep, humble obeisance as two skeleton guards ushered us past the gate before the throne of the Lord of the Dead and clicked with their teeth, "You are now in the presence of our Lord Hades." Then they retired to their posts back at the stone arch.

As I rose again from the floor, I saw the dark shadowy object seated in the obsidian throne shift its robes slightly. Slowly, as my eyes adjusted to the dimness of the chamber, I discerned a long beard and a dark crown of some sort, and finally a shadowy, olive-skinned face with feverishly bright beady black eyes.

"Who are you? And why have you come?"

Even I, who was used to all sorts of scary people in the streets, shuddered inwardly at the deep rumble of Hades' voice. This really was a god of magnificence, a man of power.

I took a step closer. "I am Wynter, daughter of Hecate, and I come as the leader of this quest."

This seemed to spark his immediate interest. "A daughter of Hecate? On a quest? From Camp Half-Blood? Tell me more, young woman."

"The residents of the camp have been afflicted by a deep and impenetrable disease caused by dark magic," I began (for perhaps the millionth time since the beginning of our journey). "I have come in search of an item that will cure our people and enable us to fight the invading dark forces."

"Ah!" he said slowly. "Yes, I have heard of this dark force of which you speak. I have heard tell that he is the son of Kronos, correct?"

I nodded mutely.

"And what is it you seek here in my realm?" he demanded.

Quickly I lifted my wrist to show the sparkling golden band wrapped around it. "The golden capsule which matches this bracelet," I said, direct to the point.

He squinted and studied the bracelet. His eyes widened for the briefest instant, but then he settled back to his usual dark, saturnine mood. "I know not what you speak of."

I gritted my teeth. I should have expected such a difficulty as this. "It is hidden in a tree in Tartarus," I asserted, my voice growing harsh in my excitement.

He observed the determination in my voice and in my icy blue eyes. He seemed to consider for a minute; then he apparently changed his mind. "All right, I will give you a chance, young half-blood," he announced grandly. "I will allow you to enter my kingdom and explore it undisturbed if you can but answer me one thing."

I paled, unsure of what was coming next. "What's that?"

He chuckled and drew out his words slowly. "Nothing, my dear. Just a riddle."

I set my jaw and glanced sideways at Zac, whose eyes met mine with genuine concern. Then I looked the other way at Annabeth: her grey eyes were now stormy with determination. I took my cue from her. "Okay, Lord Hades," I called out, somewhat cheeky to boost my courage. "Fire ahead."

He smiled a slow, sardonic smile. "Think well before you answer, daughter of Hecate," he said. Then he recited:

"_My age is what no man can tell;_

_Forever in this world I dwell._

_I lie upon my cushioned chairs,_

_A white expanse that serves as stairs._

_I fly about the world each day;_

_You lift your eyes to me to pray._

_At night I rest, and shadows hide_

_My eyes, and thoughts I have inside;_

_Such silver lights round me abound._

_I have too many names to count._"

**Yay! Let's see if any one of you can solve the riddle!**

**Oh, and you're in for a surprise for th next two chapters. So stay tuned!**

**And thanks yet again to all my reviewers:**

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**and again, my friend** _Sheva Das_**.**

**And please review, review, review! If there's still a glitch in the review/feedback system, please just take the time to PM/e-mail me. Don't forget to tell me what you think about my plot, character development, and style so far! If you have any suggestions, such as lengthening or shortening chapters, including certain conversations, expounding on the Wynac side, and such, please don't hesitate to tell me! And don't worry if your reviews are ridiculously long! I. Love. Long. Reviews!**


	18. Chapter 18: Trouble Comes in T's

**Thanks so much for your patience! I'm sorry I haven't updated in just a little less than a week; my family took several unexpected night trips to the shopping centers and grocery stores, so I beg your forgiveness. And thanks (I'm assuming that you've already pardoned me!) then.**

**Congratulations to FantasyFan-WriterGirl, whose guess to the riddle—the sky—was a hair away from the real answer; and congratulations also to olympianchef213, who sent me a private guess and hit the correct one right on the nail after a few tries!**

**Anonymous Friend: No, they don't ever meet Nico in this particular part of their adventure. Sorry! ^^**

**Thanks again everyone for your 20+ reviews per chapter!**

Chapter 18: Trouble Comes in T's

I grit my teeth again and catapulted my brain ahead at a gazillion miles per hour. What the Hades could Grandpa Hades mean? (Sorry, no pun intended.)

"Oh Zeus," I swore aloud.

Hades blanched. "What!"

I glanced up, taken aback.

He leaned forward and gripped the arms of his throne until his knuckles grew white from the pressure. "Say…that…again."

I squinted. "I said 'Oh Zeus,'" I repeated. "Are you disturbed by my foul mouth?"

He didn't seem to have heard the latter part of my sentence. His eyes dilated, and he began breathing heavily; involuntarily I took a step back as if to avoid his wrath. "That is correct!" he shrieked. "How did you do it? How did you do it? How?"

I stared at him. Then it struck me that by pure Fate (or rather, I suspected, by the guidance of my mother), I had uttered an imprecation that turned out to be the answer to the riddle. I nearly felt faint with the realization.

Then I put up my bold façade again. "It doesn't matter how I figured it out," I stated, rather impertinently. "The fact is, I solved it. And that means you must keep your word and let us pass."

A slow, sly grin suddenly slipped across my grandfather's dark visage. "But I never swore on the River Styx," he chuckled, drawing out his words slowly.

I blinked. How could I have been so stupid? I hadn't even bothered to get a real oath out of him!

At that moment, I made my decision. Getting my way by wit had failed; it was now time to show some force. Without warning, I whipped out my long bluish-silver sword with the emblazoned ball of fire in the hilt and held the point at Hades' chest.

Hades started violently. "What—"

"Let us through," I growled through my teeth, "or you'll bleed."

He gauged his options silently: if he called for his skeleton bodyguards, I could just stick him; if he reached for his sword, I could prove to be a skilled swordsman (which I rather doubted). He hissed, cornered. "Go!" he barked. "Go and wreak havoc, for all I care! Just get out of my sight!"

I half-smiled and motioned to the others to proceed while I held my grandfather in check. When I was certain that all was in place, I slowly withdrew the point of my blade from his chest and sheathed my sword again. Then, without turning my back once on Hades, I disappeared after my friends.

The path through the Realm of the Dead was dark and smoky and rocky. We stumbled blindly through the dark for some while; I was beginning to wish we had Imani back to help guide us through the infernal blackness (literally). Then it struck me that she hadn't even returned yet. "Where's Imani?" I said suddenly.

Thalia looked worried. "She might be having some difficulty…"

I shook my head. "I haven't heard the tambourine yet. I just hope she wasn't hurt before she could get away."

Percy forced a smile. "She's okay," he assured me.

I nodded and faced forward again. "Which way to Tartarus?"

This was addressed to a host of skeleton guards clicking excitedly in some sort of animated conversation as they sauntered down the highway toward us, obviously headed for the throne room. They turned to us, and one pointed his bony finger (putting it lightly) to our right toward a glimmer of crimson through the cracks in the rock. Then they turned back and hurried on without looking at us again twice.

I breathed a sigh of relief. "Obviously they think we're off to visit our grandmothers."

Zac chuckled. Good. At least we had _one_ jovial member of our party. I sighed and shook my head, then hurried off in the indicated direction.

The air began to grow hotter as we drew closer to the area of Hades that was presumably Tartarus. Far off behind us, I could hear laughter and music floating toward us from the direction of Elysium; I shuddered and wished our quest could only be directed there, instead of _here_. Ah well, there was nothing we could do about it.

Annabeth tapped my shoulder. "Over there, I think."

I glanced where she was pointing: only a few hundred yards away, there stood a large, spreading oak tree in the middle of a small island floating in a gurgling, fresh-looking river; large fruits that I absently identified as juicy pomegranates hung tantalizingly (literally) from beneath the rustling green leaves.

"How in Atlas' name are we going to find a tiny golden capsule hidden in _there_?" I muttered.

Annabeth gave me a mysterious smile. "Oh, we will. Except it will be in Tantalus' name."

I stared at her.

She grinned and beckoned with a finger, then pointed. "Look! There he is, on the side of the island."

I squinted and caught sight of a ragged old man with a wizened little face and a shriveled, bent body scurrying round and round the tiny patch of land, alternately lunging at the playful waves of water and leaping up at the evasive pomegranates. He growled and screamed and wailed and cursed all at the same time as each time he failed to get his sustenance.

"What do you plan to do?" I asked Annabeth, my voice low.

"We strike a bargain. We offer him some food in return for his services; of course he must know where the capsule is, especially since he's been here in Tartarus for centuries, you know."

"But he _can't_ take any food," Zac interposed.

"Of course," replied Annabeth.

We glanced at one another; then we understood. "Ah," I said at last, nodding sagely. "Shall we do it, then?"

We didn't bother to roll up our pants but instead plunged straight into the narrow river and waded thigh-deep in the chilly waves. The current was not strong; in a moment we had reached the island.

Tantalus sighted us immediately. He surveyed Percy and Annabeth keenly, then cackled bitterly. "It's you young half-bloods again," he wheezed, his voice issuing from somewhere between his nose and his throat. "Come to torture me, haven't you?"

Annabeth pulled an admirably innocent face. "Oh no, sir," she said mournfully. "We want to help."

Tantalus glanced at Zac and me, then back to Annabeth. "You sure about that?"

Annabeth nodded sincerely. Percy, who was at that moment in the mood for common sense, followed suit. "We need to make a deal with you," said Annabeth straight out. "Find us just a little trinket we're looking for on this island, and then we'll give you some food and drink to last you a lifetime."

"What sort of food?" Tantalus asked suspiciously.

I instinctively pulled out a plastic bag of ambrosia squares and showed it to him, but didn't get it very close to his fingertips. "Celestial food."

"Hm-hm-hm," he said in his nasal voice. His eyes glinted craftily: the bargain was too great to resist. "Sure. What do you need?"

Quickly I described to him the small golden capsule with light blue powder inside. He hopped and danced and tottered around in excitement while he thought a while; then, without further ado, he ran around the corner of the island and soon returned with a tiny linen-wrapped bundle in his wrinkled hand. He held it out to us.

I gasped. "How did you find it so fast?"

Tantalus shrugged. "I saw it some years ago hidden in the knot in the trunk above the spot where I always sleep."

I scooped up the capsule and inspected it: it was exactly as my mother had written—it was crafted of durable, pure gold, studded with gems in the same pattern of waves as on my bracelet. I returned it to the sac of linen and dropped it into the secure pocket of my (now drenched) denim skirt.

"Now where's my celestial food?" demanded Tantalus.

Annabeth signaled to me, and I handed him the plastic bag silently. He snatched it up and danced away, hissing and chuckling delightedly.

We were already back on the other side of the river by the time his frenzied cry of despair reached our ears.

I~I~I~I~I

I gasped and stumbled backwards, almost treading on Zac's toes, as a hand suddenly reached out and grasped my arm.

"I've been looking for you!" said Imani.

I breathed a sigh of relief and pulled her closer, my hands still shaking. "You scared me blind by popping out like that like a ghost!" I grumbled.

She smiled. "Who knows, I may even _be_ a ghost."

I slapped her shoulder playfully. "How was doggie?"

She shrugged. "So-so. I had to play with him a while before I could slip away. I—I had to leave the tambourine…"

"You mean so he could play with it?" I asked.

She nodded silently and looked down at her hands.

"It's perfectly okay," I assured her. "I was expecting you might do something similar. I don't mind."

Zac suddenly jabbed me with his elbow. "Has anyone thought of H-O-M-E yet?"

I sighed and rolled my eyes. Then I surged onward. "To Camp Half-Blood!"

"Yay!" said Percy, throwing a punch in the air. Suddenly he stopped. "Uh…what about Nico?"

I~I~I~I~I

"Hasn't anyone's stomach been grumbling in the last, like, six hours?" complained Zac as he lagged behind.

"Then hurry up," I retorted. "You certainly don't want to be left behind for dinner now, do you?"

At this, he said no more.

Suddenly Thalia pointed. "Who's that?"

I followed the direction of her finger; she was indicating a figure coming down the sidewalk at a rapid pace toward us. Despite the diversity of the thick crowd of L.A., he still seemed…different. He had light brown hair and (as far as I could tell) greenish-grey eyes; he was dressed in a casual plaid blazer with fashionable leather patches at the elbows. A black leather briefcase was slung over one shoulder, as if he were just coming home from work.

As he came nearer to us, the man suddenly stopped. We stopped too—and stared at each other like a bunch of idiots.

He was the first to speak. "Hey! Looks like you all need a ride somewhere!"

"Uh…" was my ingenious reply.

He motioned to his dark blue minivan parked by the curb. "C'mon, there's room for everyone. I'll give you a lift."

I stammered some unintelligible reply. Who was this man? And why was he being so accommodating, when for all he knew, we could by a bunch of hippies and drug addicts?

(Okay, maybe that was a bit strong.)

Finally I simply nodded and followed the man to his car. "You can sit in the front with me," he called back over his shoulder as I came nearer.

I nodded again and obeyed; the others got in without a word, and the man himself swung into the driver's seat and clicked on the engine. "So," he said, as he backed out, "where do you need to go?"

"Actually," I said, "we need to get to New York."

To my immense shock, the man was not angry. He smiled. "You remind me of my ex-wife," was all he said. Then he addressed all of us. "NYC, am I correct?"

"Yes," said Thalia.

Suddenly the man stopped. I followed his gaze: he was staring straight at the hilt of my sword, which had worked its way out from under my jacket and was sticking up like a butter knife, plain as day. I started. Could he see through the mist?

"You're—you're a half-blood," he said faintly.

My jaw dropped. "But—you're a mortal!" I returned, almost angrily.

"I know."

I turned to stare at him. "And who exactly are you, mister?" I demanded, not too politely.

"I'm Dr. Thomas Popplewell, Professor of Architecture at the local university," he proffered.

Annabeth gasped. "Architecture? You teach _architecture_?"

(Percy grinned.)

Dr. Popplewell nodded. "Now are all six of you half-bloods?"

We all exchanged meaningful looks. At last, with great reluctance, we nodded. Then we decided to introduce ourselves.

Dr. Popplewell eyed Percy and Annabeth curiously. "Perseus Jackson and Annabeth Chase? I think I've heard of you before…"

The two in question flushed.

I was the last to introduce myself. "I'm Wynter, daughter of Hecate." (Here I resisted the urge to lie once more about my name.)

The man started violently. "Hecate? Your mother is Hecate?"

I looked at him, bewildered. "What do you mean?"

"What do I mean?" he repeated wildly. "Why, my ex-wife was Hecate!"

**I **_**knew**_** I wouldn't disappoint you with this one! And I told you that you were in for the next two chapters! Yay!**

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**Pleas review! I'm simply **_**dying**_** to know what you think!**


	19. Chapter 19: An A to Z of the Gods

**Sorry! I didn't update for nearly a week! I started getting **_**really**_** busy with school—e.g. taking three lessons in biology daily, reading **_**Oliver Twist**_** in less than a week, and finishing two chapters in Logic 101 within three days. If you need a more complete catalogue of the activities that daily weary my brain, just PM me…**

**Anonymous Friend: Thanks for your reviews!**

**And so, voila! (I hope you're not too disappointed with the actual result of this particular chapter. If it's not as exciting as you really expected, it's because this a transitional installment.)**

Chapter 19: An A to Z of the Gods

I gaped.

"Your. Wife. Was. Hecate?" I repeated slowly.

He nodded. Then he scratched his head.

"How many kids did my mom have?" I pursued.

He turned back to me. "One, as far as I know."

I nearly fainted from the shock. "You're my dad!"

"A piece of advice," broke in Thalia. "Expect more shocking surprises along the way. Be grateful that at least this is a _wonderful_ surprise."

I nodded faintly.

Professor Popplewell—or rather, my dad—seemed equally astonished by this sudden epiphany. "You are my daughter Wynter," he said at last. "After all this time, I still haven't forgotten your name."

"I never knew you," I replied. "I never knew your name. I just knew you as Dad-dad. I was kidnapped by a manticore when I was probably only three or four years old."

He gazed mournfully at me. "I thought you were dead," he said. Then he brightened considerably. "But we've found each other at last!"

"Yeah, this certainly _is_ a better surprise than the one I got when I found out about Tyson," commented Percy.

"Shut up," remarked Annabeth.

Imani bit her lip nervously; Thalia scowled at the miscreants and clutched her bow tightly.

"So…you live here?" I asked with genuine interest.

Dad waved a hand vaguely in some other direction of the city. "I have a small apartment over there behind the strip of offices on Oakland Drive," he explained. "I'm taking you there right now." He paused, then turned to me with a question of his own. "Where are you kids going, anyway? If you just came from Camp Half-Blood, how did you get here?"

"We're on a quest," I replied, somewhat with a feeling of self-importance. "I'm the leader, and we've been ordered by the Olympians to find both a cure for the epidemic spreading through camp, and also a dark and mysterious force that's rising in the west. I mean, that's why we're here in California."

"Have you been successful yet?" he asked.

I bit my lip. "Yes and no…"

"What do you mean?"

"For Zeus' sake, spit it out, Wynter!" exclaimed Thalia impatiently (in fact, so impatiently that she didn't even note the god whose name she had used).

(Zac squirmed uncomfortably.)

"Well, we've found the capsule of blue powder that's supposed to be the cure," I said slowly. "But we haven't quite found the 'dark force' yet. Truthfully, I'm at a loss, Dad."

"Hmm…is it a person? A fellow half-blood, perhaps?" suggested my dad helpfully.

I shrugged. "Yes, but he's actually half-Titan and half-Olympian. We know that he's the son of Kronos, but—"

"He's _what_?"

"Kronos' son," I repeated with gravity. "And his mother is a Greek goddess."

"That's quite a big task," Dad replied. "You have no other clue at all as to his whereabouts?"

I shook my head.

Dad heaved a deep sigh. "Well, all the more reason to come along with me and freshen yourselves up before we start brainstorming a bit on this mystifying enigma."

"Redundancy," muttered Annabeth under her breath.

Oh well, I suppose she was just getting hungry.

I~I~I~I~I

The taste of cool milk sent the blood tingling delightfully through my veins. I'd never tasted anything so delicious or delightful before in my whole life—as far as I could remember. My newfound dad also brought out some deli sandwiches from the fridge and served them with a spoonful of cold slaw on each plate.

After I had taken a few highly satisfying bites, I looked up. "Have you figured out anything about it yet?"

Dad smiled and rumpled my flaming hair. "Just like your mom. Always eager for adventure."

I pretended to scowl. "No, really!"

He laughed. Then he sobered again as he thought over the further information I had given him in the car while briefing him on the important incidents of our recent quest. "I've been thinking…"

I leaned forward easily. "Yes?"

"We know for certain that _his_ mother is not Aphrodite," he reasoned aloud.

I knit my brow together. "How do you know?"

He grinned at me wryly. "Why, how could a daughter of Aphrodite by the name of Demi Cochemagne fall in love with her own relative?"

"Oh," I said, feeling stupid.

Then I cleared my throat. "So…who _is_ it?"

He grew silent and thoughtful for a minute. Then he replied, "I agree with you, most likely not Hera. Your description of his half-blue eyes and his streak of red hair certainly don't match Athena…and I'm positive Athena wouldn't have betrayed the Olympians in the Titan War."

I waited.

"Again, his description doesn't match the typical green eyes and brown hair of a Demeter kid," he continued. "As for Artemis…"

"No," stated Thalia flatly. "My Lady Artemis has always been faithful and loyal to the Olympian cause. She would not have gone with Kronos. Ever."

Percy nodded meekly, no doubt recalling his previous encounters with the red-haired goddess of the hunt.

"Oh yeah, I've met my little aunt before," commented Zac. "Really fierce, she is."

Thalia glared across the table at him and placed a hand menacingly on the bow strung across the back of her chair. Even I glanced sideways at him and jabbed him. (After all, he _did_ deserve it, after all the times he'd stepped on _my_ toes.)

Annabeth suddenly cleared her throat and started counting and ticking off her fingers, as if to relieve the tension. "Let's see, Hera, Athena, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Artemis have all been struck out…and there's no other goddess among the Twelve…hmm."

I scratched my head. "Then it must be a minor goddess."

"There are dozens of minor goddesses," Imani informed me.

I grimaced. "Yeah."

My dad cracked into a tentative smile. "I guess we're all racking our brains to no effect," he said, and added wryly, "especially if even Athena's own daughter can't think of anything."

I nodded.

Dad suddenly pushed back his chair and stood. "There's a guest bedroom upstairs, next to mine," he announced. "Zac and Percy can sleep in my room with me, and you girls can get the guest room, since it's slightly bigger."

We all nodded wearily in consent and gathered our jackets and backpacks and such sundry supplies before shutting off the lights and shuffling single file upstairs. I got up a little ahead of the others, away from the soft chatter of voices, and caught up with my dad by the bathroom.

My dad seemed to sense I was behind him. "Wynter."

I smiled secretly at the fondness and warmth in his voice. "Dad."

He chuckled. Then he grew serious again. "Wynter, I've been meaning to ask you something."

I raised a brow, wondering what else it could be that he hadn't told me yet.

"I've been observing you all day long since we arrived," Dad began. "You know that boy—Zeke, or Zac, or something like that, the son of Apollo—and I noticed…well, you know…"

I colored to the tips of my ears.

He studied my expression carefully, then leaned back again and simply nodded. "I would have expected as much."

"You're—you're not mad?" I blurted, astonished.

He shook his head slowly. "No…not exactly. I'm happy for you. But I must warn you, that you might want to proceed in your relationship a bit cautiously."

"Don't worry, Dad, I won't disappoint you," I replied urgently. "I'm careful. I'm not going to stress you out."

He nodded again and managed a small smile. "Good, good."

For a moment we stood in the shadows of the doorway in silence as the five other quest members filed past and began setting up their stuff and bickering half-heartedly about who should get the bed. Then my dad said suddenly, "You must be tired, Wynter. Go on, I'll talk to you again in the morning. Good night. Rest well."

"'Night," I replied, yawning, and made my way into the girls' bedroom.

(It turned out that I got the bed.)

I~I~I~I~I

I stood in a vast field in the darkness of midnight; the moon shone dimly on the dewy grass beneath my feet. Mist flowed and shifted in thick layers about my feet, spiraling up my ankles and then slinking down again. I shivered: it was freezing out here like Hades.

Wait. Why was I outside?

Just then a soft indigo glow emanated from the ground before me, and in a moment the same tall flame-haired, purple-eyed woman I'd seen before stood before me. My mother.

I was speechless.

Hecate didn't seem to see me. Her deep, pulsing violet eyes flashed wildly back and forth, and she seemed to gaze straight _through_ me. I tried to turn and see what was behind me that had affixed her attention, but I was paralyzed—I couldn't move a muscle, just stare dumbly at her.

Then I noticed her mouth was moving. I strained my ears to catch the few words I could hear.

"Please…come back…don't you love me? Give him back…for the love of Olympus! He is a good son…please…"

I stared at her, shocked. What was she talking about?

Suddenly she started and turned her eyes fully on me, as if she had just realized for the first time that I was there. "Wynter!" she said urgently. "I must tell you something—"

At that moment, a loud crash shattered my dream.

With a startled cry, I flew to my feet. The three other girls were also on their feet, half-crouching, with bow strung and daggers drawn. In a flash I had grabbed my sword also.

Before us, the light of the moon streamed onto the carpeted floor, illuminating the small pile of glass shards that glinted wickedly in the path of silver light. I gaped at the window: it had been smashed to bits with a cudgel, and now shouts and heavy footsteps could be heard outside—and the ring of steel.

**A/N: See, I told you that I try not to ever disappoint you! Maybe the chapter title is a bit sappy, but that's because I was pressed for time on this one. Anyhow, I hope you liked it! Please review!**

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	20. Chapter 20: I Get into the Ring of Fire

**Okay, now I really owe you all for torturing you with my suspense for over a week. It's really my fault now; I got super-uber-duper busy with school, plus I picked up composing again, and I was pressed for time to finish two new compositions, "Memories" and "Dawn." On top of all this, I was starting my new sci-fi novel **_**Water**_** at a furious rate of strictly a chapter every other day to meet the ghastly deadline of **_**two months**_**.**

**So, with apologies and (relatively) lengthy explanations aside, thanks for all the reviews and encouragement! Enjoy!**

Chapter 20: I Get Myself in the Ring of Fire

"Hades' skeletons," I swore. "It looks like they've gotten way ahead of us."

"Exactly," said Annabeth grimly. "We have to hurry and get back to camp."

"They're coming in through the window," I muttered over my shoulder. "Quick, get close behind me. Whatever happens, don't separate—most likely it's monsters again, and those creatures get discouraged when they see a sturdy group."

The other girls nodded and followed my instructions; Thalia whipped out a handful of arrows and notched three shafts to her bow at the same time. Just as I was drawing my glowing blue steel sword, the window roared with trampling and shouts and the beating of wings against metal and wood. The glass shards skittered nervously across the hardwood floor and swirled in a heap around my feet, hemming me in.

Gritting my teeth, I raised my head. The full light of the moon struck my eyes at a slant, blinding me temporarily; but in a flash I had moved a fraction of an inch to the side, and I could see clearly in the silver light the dark silhouette of none other than Demi Cochemagne.

"I told you she's not over yet," I muttered to Thalia through clenched teeth.

"I know, just delayed," Thalia replied, casting a sarcastic glance at our longtime adversary.

"Greetings, my dears!" Demi chirped, reaching into her knee-high black leather fashion boots (gods, those must have been hot in June) and flipping out a flashing collapsible dagger with a steel blade nearly six inches long. I swallowed.

"Oh, get on with it, traitor," I growled. "Go on, kill me."

As if to corroborate my words, I spread my arms wide and left my entire torso exposed. Inside me, though, every single muscle was quivering in anxious anticipation as I braced myself for the worst.

Suddenly Demi laughed and stepped lightly from the windowpane into the room, tossing and playing with her blade as if she had only caught it up in sport. "Oh, it's _much_ too soon to kill you," she cooed. "To think, missing all the fun of seeing you actually die on the battlefield, foolishly standing alone in front of a battalion of monsters only to save your petty little friends."

She spat at the three girls behind me.

To my surprise, Imani suddenly raised her arm, clutching her own silver dagger tightly. "Look who's talking, child of _Aphrodite_."

Demi pouted and turned her injured attention back to me. "I'm not going to kill you, my dear Wynter—_yet_. First, I would like you to meet my wonderful leader and current fiancée, Jasper."

With a disgusted look, I turned my eyes past her and the tittering bunch of Furies cracking their whips to the person that had not yet come inside. With slow, deliberate gravity, the shadowy figure at the window descended and stepped onto the floor, the thud of his boots echoing enormously in the near-empty room. I nearly gasped with surprise when I saw how tall he was—nearly six feet, and reaching to the ceiling. A short black cloak, sort of like a capelet, swung easily from his broad shoulders; then, slowly, surely, he reached toward his scabbard and began to draw forth an impossibly, unimaginably _long_ sword.

It was over two feet long.

"Who—who are you?" I whispered.

"She told you already," he said, his voice low but intimidating—like the roll of thunder. He nodded in the direction of Demi, who now dwarfed in comparison to him. "I am Jasper. Son of Kronos."

Just then, the broken memory of my dream flashed in my mind again. I caught my breath. "You're—you're the son of Kronos and Hecate."

He narrowed his blazing golden eyes (Zeus, he must have been getting pretty angry). "I never told you that."

"Of course you didn't," I retorted, raising my chin defiantly. "Your mother did."

Somehow, I always managed to find snappy comebacks and raise a rebellious stance even in the very situations where it might prove my ultimate undoing. I suppose my feisty spirit was an inherent trait from my mom…

Suddenly Annabeth gasped behind me and blurted out the words just as their meaning struck me. "Wynter, this—this _monster_ is your brother!"

I set my jaw. "I know."

Just then my newfound enemy called Jasper flicked his sword in my direction, tilting back my head forcibly with the point of his blade. "Do you challenge me? Or do you come to join me?"

My ice blue eyes snapped more chilly than ever. "I think you know the answer well enough."

"Speak!" he snarled. Without warning, he pushed my head even farther back, and the sharp tip of his sword cut into the soft skin of my chin; a thin rivulet of crimson slowly began to make its way down my neck.

Thalia yelled and released the three arrows she'd been holding all this time. They whispered silently through the air and were suddenly drawn back by an incredible slowness; a thin ring of fire burst out around Jasper and blocked the shafts, which hit it and silently fell to the floor. He himself remained unscathed, and he extinguished the fire again.

"Wrong man to pick on, daughter of Zeus," he hissed. "I control both magic and time."

"And magic and time will bury you soon enough, I'm sure," I said sarcastically.

His sword dug deeper into my skin. "I will brook no impudence!" he shouted. "I say, what is your decision? Speak!"

I completely ignored the biting pain in my neck that was nearly consuming my concentration. "All right, I'll speak," I replied, managing (somehow) to grin lopsidedly. "HELP!"

At that instant, the door burst open on its hinges, and we were greeted by shouts and war whoops as none other than Percy and Zac charged into the room, brandishing their weapons menacingly.

By this time, Thalia had recovered from the shock of her defeated shot and had whipped out another threesome of arrows. Zac followed suit, and soon the pair of them were shooting repeatedly nonstop at the gaggle of Furies and mismatched monsters. Shrieking in surprise and alarm, the monsters raised their arms to shield their faces, but it was too late. Arrow after arrow rammed home, and within moments there was nothing but an enraged Jasper, a gaping Demi, and a smoldering pile of dust.

Percy wheeled and ran to Annabeth's aid, where she was slowly parting from the tight circle and trying to corner Demi.

Just then, Zac seemed to realize (rather belatedly, I'm afraid) the highly tense situation I was in at that moment. He notched another arrow. "Maybe Kronos' son does need an alarm clock every once in a while," he remarked, and gave his best shot ever.

Jasper turned too late. Before he could slow time, or put up a wall of fire, or pull off any of his flashy tricks, Zac's arrow had flown straight and true and lodged securely in his right arm. With an unearthly scream, Jasper yanked back his sword in pain, and his entire body seemed to glow crimson for a moment. Then, without warning, he disappeared.

"What the—" With the blood still pouring freely down my chest, I stumbled to my knees and searched the space on the floor where my half-brother had just been standing five and a half seconds ago.

"He's gone," said Zac matter-of-factly. Then he noticed my wound. "Gods, you're hurt. Quick, get up. We need to get to camp as fast as we can."

I waved my hand vaguely in his direction. Then, shakily, I stood and rubbed my neck as I'd just realized the gravity of the fix he had just gotten me out of. "Wait," I said hoarsely. "Stop, Annabeth. We need Demi."

Just as I said the words, Annabeth flicked her wrist back, twisting Demi's blade out of control and sending it spinning from her grasp. Demi wailed and dove after her weapon, but Percy was quicker and stepped on it before she could reach it.

"We need Demi to teleport us to camp," I repeated.

Imani came up behind me, wiping the monsters' ash from her silver dagger. "Are you sure? Demi's not—"

"She's insane," I interrupted. "But we have to get there before the monsters attack. Now."

I~I~I~I~I

"Why didn't you take your dad along, Winnie?"

I shrugged. "I wouldn't want to get him into trouble with monster attacks and battles and all…especially on the first day I've met him."

Zac only responded with "Ah" and looked away. The six of us—me, Zac, Annabeth, Percy, Thalia, and Imani—were standing precisely at the bottom of Half-Blood Hill, gazing up at the horizon as if unsure, only for a fraction of a second, what the future would bring. (Demi had squealed and scampered off at the first chance of escape.) Then, wordlessly, I stepped up and beckoned to the others to follow.

Thankfully, the camp was still and peaceful. The Big House still stood as I had last seen it, lone and spotlessly white against the bright green grass. The dew seeped into my shoes as I made my way softly through the rustling morning fields toward the house ahead. Silently I strode across the veranda and inside into the parlor; the others followed silently behind.

Chiron seemed to have heard us and come out of his bedroom. He was prepared for our arrival in full centaur form; he had even slung on his quiver of arrows and longbow. "You have returned," he observed gravely.

I nodded my head once. "We have the cure, Chiron."

"That is well," he said. Then he sighed. He could sense what I was going to say next.

"There's more," I added, a bit superfluously. "We tried to get here as fast as we could because I have just discovered the identity of our true enemy."

He lifted his head suddenly and gazed into my eyes keenly. "Who is he?"

"Jasper, the son of Kronos," I replied. "And I believe he's leading his forces into camp any minute now. We may only have an hour left, even."

"The son of Kronos!" Chiron exclaimed. "Oh, but yes, it can only be true…he is part-Titan."

"And—and something else," I stammered.

Chiron studied my face closely. "Yes?"

"Jasper's also half-Olympian," I managed to say after an interminably long pause.

He leaned forward. "He is? Which goddess is his mother?"

"H-Hecate. Jasper is my half-brother."

**Thank you all **_**so**_** much for your patience! I sincerely hope I didn't disappoint you with this update.**

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	21. Chapter 21: Blue Fire

**A/N: Again, it was rather cruel of me to keep you all waiting for the next update from me for over a week! Now I have a really credible excuse: I had to suddenly write a persuasive paper refuting the theory of evolution within **_**one week**_**, so of course I was yanked away from the routine of updating my fanfics.**

**Anyway, thank you all **_**so**_** much for your reviews and support! I also liked your ideas! By the way, I'm going to continue uploading regular updates just to Blue Fire until I'm done with it; then I'll move on to Whisper and Black Light.**

Chapter 21: Blue Fire

Chiron stared at me in shock.

"I should have expected it," he said at last, forcing out his words. "Hecate was one of Kronos' most fiercely loyal allies during the Titan War."

Percy gaped at all of us as the meaning of what he said _finally_ struck him. "You—you mean she—well, you know, went with Luke?"

Chiron nodded. He seemed to have recovered swiftly from his shock and was more composed now.

"I think we have more important things to do now, don't we?" Imani asserted. "For instance, like Wynter said, we have the cure for the plague now."

Chiron started when he heard Imani's voice. "Imani Knight," he said warmly. "It _is_ quite a pleasure to see you again. I was worried last time you went missing from Camp."

Imani bit her lip and looked away.

I hardly noticed this brief exchange between the two; immediately I sprang to action. "Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's go help those poor kids in the infirmary!"

Chiron followed my example and right away stood to escort me to the other side of the Big House where the camp infirmary was situated. "Fortunately," he confided as we walked down the hallway, "no one has died yet. It seems that the disease slowed its effects while you were gone."

I sighed in relief.

Then he pushed open the door, and silently I went in alone with him, leaving my five companions outside the room. Softly I observed the orderly rows of cots spread with white linens, and the still forms lying beneath them. I turned to the closest half-blood at hand and discovered a girl only my age with a face ashen pale, her near-white blonde hair stringy against her sweaty brow. In the back of my mind, I assumed from her appearance that she was probably a daughter of Athena. Quickly I knelt at her side and unscrewed the cap of the golden capsule clutched tightly in my hand. I glanced about for a glass and found one; I then filled it with water from a nearby pitcher and carefully tapped a few grains of the blue powder into the water. I watched in half-fascination as the blue powder swirled and floated on the surface, gradually suffusing throughout the water and tinting it a misty blue.

I turned back to the girl and struggled to raise her halfway on the bed. Then, supporting her back with one hand and holding the glass in the other, I raised the liquid to her lips and managed to force a little into her mouth. After a few more successful tries, I sat back and watched, still holding the half-empty glass.

"Nothing's happening," I whispered fearfully to Chiron.

He shook his head. "Wait just a few more moments. We cannot rush the workings of magic."

I sighed and turned back to the girl, then nearly yelped aloud in surprise. She was sitting up and blinking her light grey eyes owlishly at me in the bright light.

"Thank the gods," I breathed. "It worked!"

Chiron lingered behind to take care of the daughter of Athena (whose name was April) while I bounded ahead and administered the same medicine to the remaining half-bloods. It was a tough job, since I was the only one who could pour the powder, but I worked as quickly as I could, and in nearly no time (which was actually approximately an hour) the infirmary was alive once again with the chattering of voices and the surprised blinks of those only waking up.

"Huzza!" a voice suddenly shouted behind me.

"Thalia!" I scolded. "What are you doing here? You should be gathering the others! We have to prepare for battle!"

"Won't we celebrate first?" demanded Zac, grinning as he popped up out of nowhere.

I rolled my eyes and threw my hands up in the air. "Chiron, assist me," I cried. "Have you all forgotten that in only a few hours, Jasper's army will be upon us?"

"Wynter is right," Chiron said, quieting the protests of the other half-bloods who had just discovered their liberation from the plague and were eager to party. "We must all eat something to get back our strength and begin preparing for battle at once."

"I told you," muttered Annabeth, shooting a fierce look at Percy.

I~I~I~I~I

"We don't know exactly what to expect," I was saying to Annabeth as we buckled on our full suits of armor, when Zac suddenly appeared at my elbow.

"I've gathered the other Apollo kids and the Hermes and Demeter archers," he announced. "Thalia's helping me."

I turned. "Good. What about Percy?"

"He's gone to get the others. Chiron's also organized some other border patrols to secure the area near Zeus's fist, just in case _they_ find a way to get in through there."

I nodded, but my mind was elsewhere. The meaning of battle coming swiftly upon us was just beginning to take effect on me, and suddenly I was feeling butterflies in my stomach. I wondered I could ever do against such vast evil forces.

Zac seemed to noticed the preoccupied look on my face. "Come on, I know where there's a wheel where you can sharpen your sword," he volunteered.

I followed him silently until we got to the armory. Suddenly he stopped and turned around again.

"You're afraid, aren't you?"

I shuddered and shook my head forcibly, but of course I was a lousy liar. "You know, you asked me that question before not too long ago," I managed to say.

He smiled gently. "So I did."

We stood there for a moment, just looking at each other, when suddenly he pulled me closer to him and wrapped me tightly in his arms. I wasn't expecting it, but I immediately returned the embrace.

I glanced up at him again and found him staring deeply into my ice blue eyes. "I love you," he said.

Just as he was about to pull me even closer, the sudden loud bang of the door shattered the tender glass of the moment.

"Sorry to interrupt," Percy gasped, struggling to right himself, "but they're here. Chiron wants you _now_."

I~I~I~I~I

"Hades' helm," was the very first thing I said as we sprinted from the armory up the hill to where nearly half the camp was already assembled. Zac winced at my foul language. Then he wordlessly tugged me in the direction of the assembly of other kids.

"Where's Annabeth and Imani?" I demanded breathlessly.

"Here," said Annabeth, popping up behind me, with Imani trailing behind. "Thalia's over on the other end, with the archers hiding behind the trees."

I immediately saw their plan. "Excellent," I concluded grimly. "It's an ambush plan."

"Exactly."

Zac quickly excused himself, muttering that he had to go now and mind the archers. Before he left, though, he gave my hand a small squeeze. "Take care."

"I will," I whispered back.

I turned back to face the bottom of the hill. For a long moment I thought I did not see anything; but then, as Chiron came cantering down the ranks in full centaur form, shouting both correction and encouragement, my vision cleared, and I caught full sight of the menace below us.

A black-clothed army stretched as far and as wide as the naked eye could see. In the sea of darkness I could discern the evil glint of steel swords and the wicked points of sharpened javelins and pikes. Many of the faces grinning up at us were shadowy and distorted; a large number with telekhines, though a few others were actually minotaurs. I sighted a band of Furies (more than three of them) sniggering and lashing the whips off to the left, while there was a complete rank of clattering, chattering skeletons flanking the right.

I grimaced and gritted my teeth. "This isn't a picturesque view," I muttered. Imani snorted half-heartedly at my lame joke.

Chiron was saying something, and I strained to hear his orders. "Organize yourselves into ranks," he shouted. "Archers, remain on the right. Those on pegasi, stay to the left. Swordsmen, divide into two and take it from both sides."

"Great," I heard Annabeth say with some doubt in her voice. "A pincer attack."

We had barely fulfilled Chiron's command when suddenly the enemy surged forth and were upon us.

In nearly no time, I found myself screaming some wild execration and plunging myself into the mêlée, brandishing my long steel sword in an attempt to look intimidating. My blade was pulsing and throbbing with shafts of blue light, and at the same time I felt a burst of energy from it flowing up my arm. "Long live Camp Half-Blood!" I shouted.

Somebody nearby heard my words and swiftly spread the battle-cry.

A telekhine slammed into my chest without warning, knocking me to the ground and winding me. I growled and struggled to jerk upright again under the weight of the hideous dog-man. He swung a crowbar-like weapon at my head, but I deflected his aim just in time, and his blow went wide. He tumbled off me into the dust and rolled across the deadened grass, where he was swiftly trampled underfoot by his fellow fell soldiers.

Without waiting another second for rest, I charged and swung my sword at an oncoming Fury. She hissed and cracked her whip in an attempt to beat me aside, but instead the tail of her leather weapon treacherously curled around me and lashed my arms to my sides. I scowled and struggled to wriggle loose, all to no avail. The Fury cackled when she realized her unconscious design, and she pounced on me like a wildcat and sank her teeth into my shoulder near my neck. I screamed and yanked my left arm free of the whip; blindly I struck out, and by pure chance—or the will of the Fates—it caught her in the gut. She sucked in her breath as if she were bleeding out her lifeblood; then wordlessly she disintegrated into a neat pile of ashes.

I worked myself free of the whip and flung it aside. Then I sighted Percy's messy raven head amidst the heat of the battle, and I hastened to his side to help him ward off a minotaur.

Percy presently was dodging the minotaur's wide attacks and doing his best to get out of the way, but the minotaur was large—literally _huge_—and he was almost no match for the monster. I tried to catch it in the back of its leg, but of course it did little to stop it, only slow it down.

"Percy, didn't you defeat a minotaur before?" I shouted over the unbearable din.

"Yes, I did!" he shouted back. "But I haven't grown much since then! And obviously the minotaurs have!"

"Then I'll do it!" I yelled. At the moment, I had completely forgotten that if Percy deemed himself short, I was only little more than half his own height.

True to my word, I braced myself and shot upward into the air, landing squarely on the monster's broad leathery back. The minotaur immediately detected the foreign presence on his body and jolted backward, trying to fling me off; but I was determined. I gritted my teeth against my dizziness and held on all the tighter, gripping a horn in one hand and my sword in the other. Then I busied myself hacking at the beast.

The minute my blade caught in the fold between the minotaur's head and neck, it gave a deafening bestial roar and came crashing to the ground. Percy threw himself aside to avoid its path, while I likewise leaped to the ground beside him to avoid being pancaked.

I stood up and brushed myself off, then stared back at Percy, who had been staring at me. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go get some more monsters!"

As the words left my mouth, a sudden gust of wind bit my raw shoulder, and my hair stood on end. I froze. I didn't even dare turn around.

"Wynter."

I knew Jasper's voice—cold, hard, cruel, dead. And yet it was ghostly, and my skin prickled at the mere sound of it.

"I will defeat you yet, Wynter. Your efforts will all be in vain."

I whirled, my ire rising to give me courage. He was standing at the brow of the hill, a slow smile of vile elation crossing his face. "Not at all!" I shouted back, raising my blue steel sword. "Help will come!"

Suddenly he laughed—a short, scoffing laugh not unlike a bark. "Help will not come," he intoned. "I have destroyed all reinforcements."

I felt my knees trembling. Was it true? Or was he only bluffing? _Please gods_, I prayed, _if you still care, help us now._

It was then that I remembered my mother's words: _If you find yourself failing, then I give you permission to open the capsule and consume the rest of its contents...but I know not the strength of your own magic. If you are not strong enough, you may die._

"Then I might as well die fighting for Olympus," I muttered to myself through gritted teeth. I hesitated only a second more, but after that I set my mind. I reached into the pocket of my skirt and popped out the golden capsule. It felt so small and light in my palm, so harmless…

I shook my head free from all dire thoughts. Then, in one swift movement, I uncapped the capsule, tipped back my head, and emptied the entirety of the remaining blue powder into my mouth. It seemed to melt and glow warmly inside for a moment as I swallowed it; and then the last thing I eve expected happened.

I burst into fire and ice.

**A/N: I don't think I even have to tell you to review.**


	22. Chapter 22: Out of Frying Pan, into Sun

Chapter 22: Out of the Frying Pan and into the Sun

Before I knew what was happening, before I could lift my sword and strike, before I could even scream, I found whooshing flames of crimson roaring at my feet and avariciously devouring the hem of my skirt. Desperately I beat at my legs and skirt with the flat of my sword and even with my bare palms, too shocked and frightened to even shout for help. The battle raged on about me, and my friends were hundreds of yards away, too far out of earshot. Fortunately, no monsters disturbed me with sudden ambushes presently, and for the moment I could concentrate on getting myself free of the fire.

In the back of my mind, I berated myself, at the same time wondering where such fire could have come from. I had consumed the blue powder, and I had felt a warm glowing feeling inside my body, but other than that…

Just then, as I was beginning to think that perhaps I could defeat the fire on my own, my fingers began to grow rigid and cold. I flexed them and slapped them together, but the more I did so, the colder they became. I could feel even the very ends of my flame-hued hair already catching fire and blazing brightly, while at the same time my face and skin and clothes felt as if they had been dipped in a midwinter river.

I stared in shock as a sheet of ice, translucent as glass, rapidly spread across the back of my hand. Slowly it began to thicken until I could hardly see the skin beneath it anymore; then icicles formed at the ends of my fingertips and ears. I seemed to have lost my voice; when I opened my mouth to finally scream for help, no sound came out.

The blood pounded violently through my temples; in the back of my mind, I feared I would burst from the pressure. Astonishingly, I only felt a consuming heat inside me, no cold at all.

Then I felt as if I were growing thinner, fading away. I dared not look down at my body, for fear I would find my very flesh dissolving into thin air. My knees buckled, and my lungs collapsed. I gasped for air.

Then all went black.

I~I~I~I~I

It seemed that my soul had separated itself from my physical body of its own accord. My spirit fluttered feebly in the dark, trapped in the warm, suffocating coffin of a lifeless body. At last a ray of light pierced through the blackness through a tiny opening, and my moth-like spirit flew to it instinctively and struggled for freedom. At last it broke through and shot into the open, cool air high above in the sky, a hundred feet above the grass. As if on impulse, I looked down.

I saw with mild surprise that the battle was now nearly over. The dark army of monsters had surged forward over the hill, led in one last wild charge by Jasper, but just then everything seemed to replay itself: I saw myself, off to one side, battling desperately with fire and ice, until suddenly I burst into a sheer wall of both elements combined. The fire swiftly swept to one side of the hill, while the ice snaked its way to the other. Both elements curved toward each other and fused at the zenith, forming a protective dome over the entire layout of Camp Half-Blood. All the remaining half-bloods were hemmed in, safely walled out from the confused, dazed monsters and attackers.

I caught sight of Jasper, stopping dead in his tracks. Slowly he raised his head in awe, not believing what his piercing blue and gold eyes were telling him. He seemed to recover quickly from his astonishment, and he raised his hands and chanted something aloud. Shafts of black smoke shot out from his upraised palms, and for a second it seemed that the magic arrows would actually pierce through the wall of fire and ice. But then, at the very last minute, they thudded into the wall with a loud _thump_ and bounced off harmlessly to the ground.

Just then Chiron himself came galloping down the hill and burst out from the curtain of fire and ice. He brandished a three-foot-long longbow with foot-long arrows, and he began shooting three to five shafts at a time. The monsters shrieked in despair and fright and flowed backward as one, now realizing that all hope was lost. Even Jasper seemed dazed as he stood in the center of the battlefield, still staring all about at the destruction he had wrought on the hill. Then the earth rumbled and slowly opened its mouth, a large fissure appearing down the middle of the grassy earth. The monsters screamed again as they were rapidly drawn back toward the crack, and all at once they lost their balance and tumbled one and all into the yawning abyss, never to be seen again.

Jasper himself seemed to be fighting the strength of magic with all his might. Just then he raised his hands again and barked out something, and a ring of black fire blazed around his feet. A flash of blinding darkness, he disappeared into thin air. The canyon itself suddenly shut itself and only rumbled faintly underfoot.

And nothing was left but bluish-black mist and the standing wall of fire and ice—and my lifeless body flung across the field.

I~I~I~I~I

The very first sensation I was aware of was the feeling of a cool, moist hand pressed gently across my brow. I found I was lying on something hard and knobby, and—shockingly—I was back in my own old body.

I struggled to open my eyes, but for a moment it seemed my muscles were completely impotent. Just then the hand on my forehead pressed ever so slightly more insistently, and warm shafts flowed into my body and suffused through my insides, filling me with glowing light. At the last second, my eyes flew open.

Everything was not as I had last seen it. I was lying against nestled roots of a tree on the brow of a hill, and in a moment I realized I was right next to Thalia's own pine tree. The solid wall of fire and ice had miraculously disappeared, and on the field to my right, there was not a vestige of the battle that had just taken place a few moments ago. There were no stray weapons, no burnt patches or pools of blood, no bodies at all.

With an effort, I raised my icy blue eyes. "Poseidon's ponies!"

Zac's face, contorted with lines of worry and pain, overwent a complete transformation. His brow relaxed, and his mouth curved upward in a tentative smile. His warm golden eyes remained somewhat doubtful, yet painfully hopeful at the same time. "Winnie," he breathed. "I don't care if the first thing you said was a curse. As long as you live."

I laughed breathlessly, almost uneasily. I glanced around. We were not alone: Percy, Annabeth, Thalia, Imani, and Chiron stood about and looked on in silence. "Wait—what happened?"

Zac stared wide-eyed at me. "I should be asking you the very same thing. What happened to _you_? I thought—I thought you were dead!" He nearly choked on the last words.

I shook my head, muddled and confused. "It was—it could have—it _must_ have been the powder…"

He studied me closely. Then his hands suddenly gripped my shoulders. "Winnie, did you consume the blue powder in the capsule?"

I nodded wordlessly.

Zac sighed and leaned back, releasing his near-terrifying grip on my shoulders. "Of course…you remembered your mother's words. Help did not come. And you wanted to help the only way you could."

Again I merely nodded.

"So it was magic—_your_ magic—that saved us," interposed Chiron softly. "When you took the potion, you must have turned into magical fire and ice." He came closer and laid a warm, heavy hand on my shoulder. "You were brave, Wynter. Courageous beyond measure. You did not know if your own strength could wrestle with death, and yet you took the risk to save Camp Half-Blood—and Mount Olympus."

I~I~I~I~I

When my dad heard the news, he immediately took the soonest flight to NYC and arrived at camp overnight. He then rushed to the Big House and asked straight away after my welfare. Chiron calmly assured him that all was well, that it was a long story to be explained when I was ready.

At that moment, I poked my tousled head round the doorway and sighted my father sitting in the parlor with lines of worry creasing his forehead. With a shout of joy, I sprang out of my hiding place and bounded into his arms. We hugged and kissed and cried together—and I didn't care, even if I _was_ fourteen years old. After all, I had been separated from him for over a decade.

At last we pulled apart long enough for me to take a deep breath and begin my tale. He was silent and solemn throughout the entire story, but he smiled at some times and frowned at others; and at the end, he leaned back and gazed at me with an expression too difficult to read. It was a complicated mixture of pride, awe, sorrow, and joy all together at once.

Just then the two doors at opposite ends of the room creaked open, and two very different and very similar people walked in. At one end, to my left, was Imani; on the other end, to my right, was a tall dark-haired man clad in a casual suit, with bright light eyes.

Imani jumped at the sight of the man; then slowly she came toward him and seemed to carry herself stiffly.

"Imani!" said the man.

Imani seemed to melt at those words. Suddenly she came toward him faster, and they shared an awkward embrace.

I stared on in bewilderment.

Chiron cleared his throat. "Imani's father, Mr. Knight, has come to see her today. Perhaps we should leave them in peace."

I nodded and silently followed Chiron out the room, with my own dad trailing not too far behind.

"So," I burst out when we were _finally_ outside, "what happened to the others? Are they all right?"

"Of course," replied Chiron with a sigh of relief. "Fortunately, the battle was too fast for anyone to suffer any serious injuries. Thank the gods, there were no deaths last night."

I breathed a heartfelt sigh of relief in turn also. "Well, what about—what about Demi?"

Chiron looked up for a second and then glanced away again. "We have seen no sign of her. She must have disappeared along with the rest."

"I hope she's gone for good into the abyss," I muttered under my breath, though truly I knew this would not be our last encounter.

"Winnie!"

I whirled at the pleasingly sudden sound of Zac's voice. Chiron noticed my ardent look in the distance and signaled to my father to discreetly withdraw.

Zac came tumbling down the hill in his haste from the direction of the archery ranges. "Thank the gods you're well and up again!" he cried breathlessly as he panted and skidded to a halt before me. Suddenly he seized my hands and whirled me around, giddy as a schoolboy. "I just can't believe it all," he kept repeating over and over to himself.

"Neither can I," I gasped in reply.

Just as suddenly as he had caught me up, he released me and stopped dancing around. His face sobered, but his golden eyes still radiated with mirth. "Why don't we go down to the lake?" he suggested. "It will be much quieter and cooler there."

I nodded my consent, still too winded to reply aloud. Silently I bounded after his lithe figure already making its way through the brambles and boughs in the direction of the now empty canoeing lake.

He was right. The breeze was fresher and cooler down here by the water, and it was soothing just to sit down in the sandy earth and gaze out at the rippling tourmaline waves lapping at our feet. Together we plopped down in the sand, squishing our toes in the sparkling miniature diamonds of nature, and simply sat there silently for a long time.

Then he moved closer to me and placed a soft hand about my shoulder. "It seems we've been growing up so much lately."

"Yes," I acquiesced. That was all I said for a while; it seemed that that one word was sufficient to express all my emotions at once.

"We've come so far, haven't we," he whispered, more as a statement than as a question, and half to himself. "When I first met you, it was…different…"

I glanced up quickly at him. "What do you mean?"

He fumbled for words. "Well, I mean, I guess…it was sort of different. A little more rash, not less passionate, but still…you know, just a crush."

I nodded, immediately understanding.

"It all started when I saw what you wrote on your hand," he said, his voice even lower than ever.

I smiled softly, remembering my clumsy attempt to write "I LUV ZAC" on my palm. I was determined now more than ever to learn how to read and write.

"And then…that first time we were alone together, in the dark," he continued. "When we first hugged. It started to get a little…_different_, again. Like, it was deeper."

Again I nodded.

"And now—and now, it's more passionate than ever, but also kind of more tender too," he rushed. He scratched his head. "Do you get me?"

"Perfectly," I sighed. "I know what you mean. You mean, we just—both of us—we've only just realized that our paths were destined to meet."

"Yes," he cried. "That's it. Remember the very first day we met? In the city? And you read me my future from a crystal ball—"

"And I predicted that you would find the love of your life," I finished. "Yes, I remember that all too well…"

Suddenly he took my hand and yanked me to my feet, dancing and laughing a little. He skipped halfway into the shimmering shallows of the lake, and laughing also, I kicked off my shoes and followed him. We held hands and turned round and round, faster and faster, our eyes locking and piercing deeper and deeper into one another. We could see mirror images of ourselves in each other's eyes, and I smiled when I saw ourselves holding hands and whirling around at a dizzying pace.

Just then Zac halted, nearly throwing me off balance into the water. He caught me just in time and held me in his strong arms and pulled me closer. I didn't resist, and we leaned toward each other.

We exchanged no words, but we moved of one accord. At that moment, we had the same feeling throbbing between our hearts. He pulled me even closer, and we stood knee-deep in the water, with the blood-red sun setting behind us. Zac slowly lifted my chin and bent down closer near my face.

Our lips met.

_Finis_


	23. Author's Note

_Author's Note_

Yes! I WILL WRITE A SEQUEL!

Readers, thank you all for your support. Without you, I would not have made it this far. Never. So now, I will thank every single reviewer who's ever supported me and given me ideas.

Thanks goes to: Sheva Das, AleBee, AvalonFreak, Saphiye-the-Night, RaechelleMarie, FantasyFan-WriterGirl, christineangel100, percabeth4ever, The Angels Have The Blue Box, the Minotaur, Element Wolf, emeraldangel527, Cerebella, olympianchef213, October Autumn, Ultimacy On High, sean115920, and last but never least, my friend The Sky Is My Canvas.

I love you all!

~The Ocean Is My Inkwell


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